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Instinct tokl Pierre that it would be iiseless to call 
a warning to Jerry. As if shot from a gun he leaped 
for tlie boy. 


Jerry King 

Timber Cruiser 


By 

Carl Brandt 



Illustrated by Harry A. Armstrong 


The Reilly & Britton Co 
Chicago 


Copyright, 1917 
By 

The Reilly A Britton Co. 


AUG -6 1917 



/erry King, Timber Cruiser 


©CI.A473035 


CONTENTS 


I Northward Bound 9 

II The Forestry Service 21 

III On Reconnaissance 33 

IV O’Day's Story 45 

V Cruising 57 

VI On Fire Patrol 71 

VII Jerry Starts for Camp 81 

VIII Camp Twenty-Nine 94 

IX A Narrow Escape 105 

X The Newcomer 116 

XI The Storm Gathers 129 

XII The Storm Breaks 141 

XIII Jerry Rides it Out 152 

XIV Ran Blair's Scheme 167 

XV The Building of the Dam 181 

XVI Thomas Pays a Call 193 

XVII Ran Blair on Guard 206 

XVIII The Drive 218 

XIX A Game Loser 232 

XX Thomas Shows His Hand 246 

XXI The Last Play 260 

XXII ViCTORY 272 



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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Instinct told Pierre that it would be useless 
to call a warning to Jerry. As if shot 
from a gun he leaped for the hoy , Fr ontispiece ^ 

The struggling pair came dose to the fire, 
locked tightly in a clinch. Just at the 
edge of the rim of light they crashed to ^ 
the ground 68 

“ Put out the light ! ” came the sharp ap- 
peal. “ I must not be seen in here ! ” . . . 148 

Every moment Pierre seemed about to lose 
his balance and then he would save him- 
self by jumping to another log 234 ' 







Jerry King, Timber Cruiser 


CHAPTER I 

NORTHWARD BOUND 

In the late afternoon the train was still 
running through the parched expanse of desert 
which it had entered some time during the pre- 
vious night. The passengers had been stifled 
since early morning by the heat and choked by 
the minute particles of grit and dirt that came 
sifting in through every crevice and crack. 
While this kept up, the passengers remained 
silent, trying in the forgetfulness of sleep to 
doze away their great discomfort. No one tried 
to talk, and there was no pleasure in reading. 

Therefore, it was like a tonic when suddenly 
the empty miles of sand gave way to scattered 
trees whose trunks slipped silently by the Win- 
dows, and a degree of coolness tempered the 
oven-like air in the day coach. People began to 
9 


10 JERRY KING 

wake Up and Stretch themselves and take an 
interest in what was going on around them. 

The change in atmosphere affected a pair who 
were occupying a seat near the center of the car. 
First, a tall man of perhaps thirty-five disen- 
tangled himself from the cramped position in 
which he had been sitting and straightened up, 
Stretching to limber up his muscles. 

A moment later his companion did likewise. 
He was a boy of perhaps sixteen, tall for his 
age, yet in no way giving the idea of having 
grown too fast. He was slender, but it was 
clear that he was in good condition and that 
every muscle was properly trained. 

“ Tired, Jerry? ” the man wanted to know, as 
they sat down again. 

“ You bet! So tired that I hope Fll never see 
a train again. But it’s a lot better than riding 
on the brake-beams ” 

“You’ve hoboed it, then?” said the man, 
surprised. 

“ Some little. That was before I hooked up 
with the Reclamation Service. But, Link, teil 
me something about yourself. From what you 
said, you seem to have been everywhere and 


NORTH WARD BOUND 11 

done everything, but I’ve never had the whole 
yarn.’^ 

Link O’Day smiled. “ I reckon I’ve had my 
share of excitement, but it’s nothing to boast 
about. I’ve been bucking the world a long time 
now and have had lots of chances to see and do 
things.” Then he sobered. Done so much I’m 
getting a little tired. That’s why I happened to 
be down at old Thad Holman’s ranch when you 
were there. It’s more like home there than any 
other place I know.” 

“ I remember he said one day that you came 
and went pretty often.” 

“ Yes, Thad was mighty good to me once 

when ” O’Day stopped short. It was as 

if he had been on the edge of saying something 
he did not wish to reveal. “ But never mind 
about that now. I happened to be there and 
you blew in and here we are dusting it for the 
north and the piny woods ! ” 

“ I don’t know whether we are dusting it or it 
is dusting us,” laughed Jerry King, shaking a 
cloud of white particles from his coat. “ But, 
anyway, I’m sure glad I’m with you, although I’d 
have liked to see the big dam finished.” The 


12 JERRY KING 

boy said the last few words a little wistfully. 
For a few moments both were silent with 
memories o£ recent events. 

When Jerry King first met bis present com- 
panion he had been a rodman on the Government 
Reclamation project which when finished would 
wipe out with the stored water the ranch of Hol- 
man, O’Day’s friend. The boy had discovered 
that some renegade cattlemen were in league 
with the Mexican laborers at the dam to destroy 
and delay the work as much as possible. This 
plot was to culminate in an attack on the work- 
men’s village by a band of Mexican outlaws. 
The intention back of all this, beyond sheer hos- 
tility to the dam, was to force the United States 
to invade Mexico, conquer it and thereby open a 
great new territory under the Stars and Stripes. 

In Order best to protect the dam, Jerry had 
seemed to fall in with the plotters and Mexicans 
and had acted as their go-between. At the last 
moment his plan had been to fetch a detachment 
of cavalry from the nearest fort and catch 
all the plotters red-handed. This would have 
worked beautifully had not a fellow rodman, 
named Bob Hazard, become suspicious. This 


NORTHWARD BOUND 


13 


boy mixed himself in the game and bis activities 
forced the plotters to act before the appointed 
time. But while Bob Hazard’s interference had 
prevented Jerry’s plans from taking effect, the 
dam had been saved and the bandits routed with 
glory enough for both Bob and himself. 

It had been exciting and good fun while it 
lasted, but Jerry had realized that engineering 
was not the life work for which he was par- 
ticularly suited. When Link O’Day, who had 
helped him in his plotting against the plotters, 
began to talk of forestry and lumbering, Jerry 
feit a strong desire to pull up stakes and try his 
hand at the new game. It might prove to be the 
one thing he was fitted for. But as he had just 
remarked, he left the Service with a real regret 
that he was not to help finish the dam. 

But you were going to teil me some of your 
adventures,” Jerry reminded, coming back from 
the past. 

“ No, not now,” said his companion. ** I don’t 
quite know where to begin. You teil me some- 
thing about yourself. All I know is your 
name ” 

Jerry King hesitated a moment before reply- 


14 JERRY KING 

ing, for it meant revealing that which was most 
intimate and sacred to the homeless boy — the 
little he knew about his origin. He had warmed 
Up to this man as he had to no one eise in his 
life. O’Day had been willing to take him on 
trust, had been good to him, and had asked no 
questions until now. Wasn’t it perhaps due him 
to be told as much as he himself knew? 

‘‘ All right, Link,” he said at last, “ TU weary 
you with my short sad tale.” 

But the man had noticed the evident hesitation 
on the boy’s part. 

“ No, not unless you want to, son,” he put in 
hurriedly. “ Out this way a fellow’s business is 
his own. I just had a hunch that you might like 
to teil me. Seems to me youVe been carrying 
around quite a bunch of trouble that recent 
happenings couldn’t have caused. Right?” 

“You’re right enough,” answered the boy, 
“but it’s a trouble that won’t ever go away, I 
reckon. It helped some though when I told Bob 
Hazard about it.” 

“ You told him, did you? ” 

“ Down in the Labyrinth Canyon, which we 
went through together.” 


NORTHWARD BOUND 


15 


“ You never told me about that stunt. They 
used to say no one could ever get through the 
Labyrinth alive.” 

We did though! And found a bully location 
for a dam besides. It was just after we’d had 

an upset and Bob pulled me out of the river 

saved me from drowning that I told him. 

He was the first I ever told.” 

Link O’Day kept silent. Presently Jerry went 
on. 

“ I never said anything about it before, 
because it sounded sort of babyish, and IVe been 
herded with a hard bunch ever since I can 
remember. I didn’t want to be laughed at.” 

“ I know,” said Link softly. 

“ Well, it’s just that I don’t belong to any- 
body. I haven’t any family that I know of and 
no matter what I do there isn’t anybody to care. 
Something just came over me in the canyon and 
I spilled it all to Bob just as Fm Spilling it to 

you. He cared enough to save my lif e and 

and you youVe been a friend.” 

“ Thank you,” was the grave comment. But 
Jerry went on as if he had not been interrupted: 

“ The first thing I remember is being kicked 


16 JERRY KING 

out on the streets in Chicago to seil papers and 
getting a licking when I didn’t bring home 
enough pennies/^ 

‘‘Who did the licking?” asked the man, 
resentment in his tone. 

“ Either Tim Fallon or his wife; the first one 
to reach me did the job. Before I found out 
they weren’t my parents, I didn’t mind so much, 
as all the other kids in the neighborhood got the 
same dose. But they got some sort of — of — 

of love too ” The boy hesitated over the 

Word, but once it was out, went on: “But 
they let me know soon enough that Fd been 
wished on ’em — said Fd been found in a basket 
on the doorstep one morning.” 

“ From what you say of their treatment of 
you, I don’t believe that,” flashed Link. “ If 
they weren’t paid for it, or expected to be paid 
sometime, they’d have shipped you to an orphan 
asylum ! ” 

“Think so?” asked Jerry. “ Maybe, but I 
figured they thought they could make me earn 
my keep. Anyhow, that point doesn’t matter 
much. I might just as well belong to them for 
all Fll ever know who really were my folks.” 


NORTHWARD BOUND 


17 


“ But how did you get the name of King?” 
O’Day asked, much puzzled. “ Did Fallon teil 
you it was yours ? ” 

Oh, no. I picked that up after I went on 
the road with the Denver Kid. Some farmer’s 
wife where I was sent to heg a meal wanted to 
know my last name, so I told her the first 
one I could think of. I had just seen the name 
' King ’ painted on a plow or cultivator that was 
Standing by the road as I came in the gate.” 

“ So you had a dose of hoboing it, did you ? ” 
queried the man. “ How’d that happen? ” 
“Tim licked me too hard one night in the 
springtime and I was ready to take up with 
anybody that came along. Happened to be the 
Denver Kid, who was looking for a boy to take 
on the road with him and do his dirty work. 
He spun me a yarn about the wild open coun- 
try and its pleasures. I feil for it. The country 
was all right, but until I finally ducked the 
Denver Kid I didn’t find that there was much 
pleasure in begging grub and doing household 
Chores for a tramp. But when I finally beat it 
I feil into the best luck IVe ever had.” 

“ Yes? ” encouraged O’Day, as his companion 


18 JERRY KING 

seemed likely to drift off the straight narrative. 

“ It was a great time. A Mrs. Olson took me 
in at harvest time and when it was over let me 
stay on and go to school in the winter. I got all 
the schooling I ever had there. She was sure 
good to me; she used to — scold me just like Fd 
been her own boy.’’ 

“ Why did you leave? ” 

She died,” said the boy shakily. “I — I just 
drifted along then, going with the harvest. 
Finally I bumped into Steve Whitney, who 
signed me up with the Reclamation Service. 
You know the rest. Nothing much there to 
make me sorry for myself , is there ? ” he 
laughed, a little bitterly, thought O’Day. 

“ I don’t think your trouble is that you’re 
sorry for yourself,” said the man slowly. 
“ Seems to me you have just been so lonely all 
your life you can’t help wishing for someone to 
care a little about you. I think it’s the most 
natural thing in the world.” 

*‘Do you, honest?” begged the boy, his eyes 
shining. “You don’t think Fve been playing 
the cry baby?” 

“ Certainly not ! Whenever you get blue you 


NORTHWARD BOUND 


19 


just let it out on me. I’m — Fm a little lonely 
myself. But didn’t the first call for dinner go 
through here a little while back?” 

“ If it didn’t, here’s the second call now,” 
Jerry said, as the white-coated porter came 
through the front Vestibüle singing his welcome 
song: 

“ Second call fo’ dinnah in de dinin’ cyar ! ” 
I’m ready for chuck, though I didn’t know 
it,” said Link O’Day. Come on; we’d better 
make as much as we can of these feeds on the 
train. Once we get off it will be a long time 
before the white napery and crystal glasses of 
luxurious civilization will greet our eyes. 
Rather, we will partake of our humble fare 
from dishes of bark and drink the purling flood 
of the mountain brook from tin dippers ” 

Link O’Day broke off and looked at his young 
companion, who was doubled up with mirth. 
Evidently his ridiculous words had taken the 
boy’s mind completely from his troubles. Per- 
haps that was the object Link had had in mind. 

“Where’d you get it?” laughed Jerry. 

Some line of talk, believe me!” 

“ Oh, I was an actor once, and trod the same 


20 


JERRY KING 

hallowed boards on which the great Booth was 
wont to tread. But, come, let’s avaunt to the 
eats ! ** And with this, chuckling and in high 
good humor, the two friends answered the call 
of hunger. 


CHAPTER II 


THE FORESTRY SERVICE 

After another long day’s ride Jerry King and 
Link O’Day swung off the train at a town called 
Taney. They were glad to set foot again on 
solid earth, yet both were in such splendid physi- 
cal condition that the trip caused them no real 
weariness or fatigue. 

Why do we get off here? ” Jerry wanted to 
know. Don’t see many forests around.’^ 

I know you don’t/’ was the answer ; “ but 
it’s the headquarters of the District Forester 
and if anything is doing it will happen here. 
That is, on government work.” 

But — but I thought we were going lum- 
bering.” 

So did I when we started, but since I had a 
little time to think on the train, it seems to me 
that you had better begin your woods study with 
some theory — and the government is sure long 
21 


22 JERRY KING 

on that/’ ’he said, chuckling a little. “ Why, 
they’d a heap rather prove out a useless theory 
than save a thousand dollars. It’s all a bunch 
of foolishness for a practical lumberman ” 

“ Well, why do you want me to Start in with 
theories if you think they are so useless? ” Jerry 
wanted to know. 

“Just a minute, son. I didn’t mean to say 
that. The fact is that the Forestry Service has 
done wonderful things when it comes to methods 
of reforestration — preventing forest fires — rthat 
is, not letting the lumber be cut ruthlessly. I 
want you to learn all they know because it won’t 
be taught you in a practical camp, that’s sure. 
I think the Service is too fussy about what they 
call cruising and estimating. Why, they go over 
a tract of forest and almost count the pine 
needles on the trees ! ” 

“ I see,’^ said Jerry. “ You want me to learn 
what I can of their good things and leave the 
bad ones out. Is that it?” 

“ Yes, but I’m taking a chance; you may not 
be able to get into the Service at all. Fll have 
to do some scouting and find out if there’s any 
opening. It’s pretty late in the season for any- 


THE FORESTRY SERVICE 23 

thing except fire patrol work and that wouldn’t 
be much help to you.’* 

“ What sort do you think would? 

“ Either reconnaissance or with the reforest-, 
ration corps. On fire patrol you are pretty much 
alone and that won’t get you anywheres. You’ll 
need somebody with you who knows, to teach 
you things. If there’s only a patrol job open, 
we’d better mosey along and see if we can’t hit 
up with a regulär logging outfit farther north. 
But ril know what’s doing by to-morrow night.” 

Before Jerry had waked the next morning, 
Link O’Day was out keeping his promise to find 
out “ what’s doing.” It might have seemed the 
most sensible thing to go to the Forest Super- 
visor’s Office when it opened and ask if there 
were any Jobs to be had, but this method did 
not appeal to O’Day. If he had been asked why 
not, very likely he would have said in a dis- 
gusted manner that Uncle Sam is too fond of 
tying things up in red tape and he didn’t have 
time to unravel the knots. At any rate, his foot- 
steps led him directly away from the government 
Offices. 

Taney was the usual bustling community of 


24 JERRY KING 

the Northwest, a town that thought like a city 
and did everything to become a city. It had a 
chamber of commerce that boosted the place for 
all it was worth and then some. First it had 
been a mining camp. The mineral had petered 
out and the town almost died overnight, only to 
prove a very lively corpse when a railroad hap- 
pened by and made of the lumbering opportu- 
nities a far greater bonanza than the wildest 
dreams of the miners who had gone before. 

After the first lumbering, which had been 
done with the profligate waste and damage that 
always marked the work of the despoilers of 
our Virgin forests, there came a new dass of 
settlers. This time they were permanent ones. 
They were the farmers who found the land 
wonderful in its resources. At about the same 
time, the government, realizing at last how valu- 
able were the timberlands, had reserved as a 
national park a great tract of mountainous coun- 
try to the northwest, which, owing to the diffi- 
culties of lumbering, the timber hogs had left 
intact. 

Through all this Taney had continued to grow 
until now its townsmen publicly announced that 


THE FORESTRY SERVICE 


25 


Chicago and New York had nothing on us 
’ceptin’ possibly a few more grafters of one sort 
or another.” 

It was not O’Day’s first visit to the bustling 
town, as was proved by the sureness with which 
he directed his steps. A few moments’ walk 
brought him to the place he sought. 

This was a large corral of high rail fencing, 
which kept captive an oddly assorted bunch of 
animals. There were draft horses and burros, 
mules and bronchos. Moving around among 
them were several men, feeding and watering. 

O’Day climbed up and perched himself on the 
top rail of the fence and rolled a cigarette. 
Then, lazily puffing, he gave himself to dreamy 
contemplation of what lay before his eyes. 

For quite a while there was nothing to disturb 
his musings beyond the shifting of the crowd of 
horses. This did not bore him, for he was too 
much the horse lover not to be interested in 
what he saw. Then the scene began to take on 
a meaning. A bunch of men rode up and after 
some of the stock had been led out of the corral 
and inspected, began to bargain amongst them- 
selves. Finally a man appeared on a showy 


26 JERRY KING 

calico mustang, whose air of authority marked 
him as being somewhat out of the ordinary. 
Although he did not know him, O’Day feit sure 
that he must be the proprietor of the horse mar- 
ket. So he took advantage of the man’s first 
free moment to approach him. 

How’s the burro market round here just 
now ? ” he wanted to know. 

“ Were you thinking o’ buyin’ or sellin’ ? ** 
countered the horse dealer, unwilling to commit 
himself. 

“ Buying, if anything,” was O’Day’s answer. 
^‘That seems a likely bunch over there at the 
foot of the corral.” 

They air for a fact, but if you should be 
a-wantin’ them, Fm sorry ter say you can’t have 


“You mean they are sold?” 

“ Right the first time ! One o’ the young f el- 
lers at the Forestry Service bought ’em yesteddy 

but I shouldn’t be a mite surprised if some- 

buddy brought in some more to-day here, 

where you goin’ ? ” 

But he spoke only to O’Day’s back, for the 
man had learned what he wanted to know, and 


THE FORESTRY SERVICE 


27 


was on his way back to the center of the town. 

I’ll be back later perhaps,” was what he flung 
over his shoulder. 

Another stroke of luck was to come Link’s 
way and it arrived before he had gone many 
Steps. The stroke was a clap on his shoulder 
and he turned to look into the smiling face of a 
slender young chap of perhaps twenty-five. 

Hello, if it isn’t old Link O’Day ! What in 
thunder are you doing up this way ? ” 

“ Don Mackenzie, by the living mackerel ! Fd 
like to ask you the same question. It’s no stunt 
to happen on an old tramp like me anywheres, 
but you — why I thought you would have pulled 
off a Corner in the wheat pit by now ” 

I guess it is a shock for you to run into the 
fool kid you got out of that rotten mess in 
Chicago.” 

It sure is,” commented O’Day. “ When I 
saw you last I never thought you’d ever get far 
enough away from the Loop to lose sight of it. 
What’s the answer ? ” 

‘‘ After you left, I began to do a little think- 
ing for the first time in my life. Fd been 
brought up a Chicago boy and I guess I’d fallen 


28 JERRY KING 

into the habit of thinking that money was every- 
thing. I figured it out that the easiest way to 
get it was in the wheat pit and I liked easy ways. 
So as soon as I quit College I made a bee line 
for a job in a broker’s office. As you know, I 
was making good at the game ” 

“ You were, all right, but the game was 
getting you/’ 

"‘That’s just what I started to dope out and 
after I’d become used to the unusual exercise 
of thinking, I decided Fd beat the game to 
it. Some one suggested forestry and here I 
am, Don Mackenzie, Forest Ranger, at your 
Service ! ” 

Link O’Day looked the young fellow over 
from head to toe. He approved of the change 
that had taken place during the years that had 
passed since the night he had laid eyes on Mac- 
kenzie for the first time. The boy had been in 
the grip of a bunch of well-dressed crooks who 
had been trying to flatter him into revealing 
certain information regarding the activities of 
his firm of brokers. Link had known one of 
the men and realized that Don was in danger. 
On a sudden impulse, having taken a fancy to 


THE FORESTRY SERVICE 


29 


the lad, he had followed him home and warned 
him of the fix he might find himself in. Mac- 
kenzie was already in pretty deep, but Link had 
taken hold of the Situation and cleared things up. 

“ Forest Ranger, eh ? Glad to hear it ! ” ex- 
claimed Link. ‘‘You must have worked pretty 
hard to get that rank in such a short time.” 

‘^You bet I did. But the stuff I learned at 
College helped a lot and once I got started I 
became so interested in it all that the work was 
easy. Fm particularly pleased with myself right 
now — the Supervisor has appointed me chief of 
a reconnaissance party to cruise a big tract up 
country.” 

“ That’s fine work,” said O’Day. “ It must 
be you that bought up the bunch of burros I’ve 
just seen at the corral? ” 

“ Yep, that’s me. I was on my way to round 
’em up when I met you. I’d be ready to Start if 
I could only get hold of a packer and another 
Forest Assistant or two. Enough assistants will 
blow in, in a day or so, but good packers are 
mighty scarce. I’m up against it, for I’ve got 
to have a man I can depend upon.” 

“ You’ve got to feed your bunch well if you 


30 JERRY KING 

expect to get real work out of them, that’s sure. 
You’ll be gone quite a while, then? ” 

Until it comes on cold. I figure it will be 
nearly two months or more.” 

O’Day had been thinking hard as the con- 
versation developed. Suddenly he surprised his 
friend by popping out: 

“ How about me? Will you give me that 
packer’s job? IVe had a little experience.’^ 

“You? You?” stammered the young for- 
ester, “you’ re joking, of course. Link O’Day, 
of whom I’ve heard ever since I left Chicago, 
a packer ! The best all-around man in the West 
— cattle, lumber, mining — a burro puncher for 
a forestry outfit. Are you kidding me ? ” 

“ Not at all,” returned the man, a twinkle in 
his eye. “ I’m quite serious. But if you take 
me on there’s a condition attached.” 

Mackenzie’s smiling face feil. “ Oh, I knew 
there had to be a catch in it somewheres. If I 
could get you it would be entirely too much good 
luck. Go on; what’s the condition?” 

O’Day explained to him about Jerry and his 
plans. 

“ My condition is that you take the boy along 


THE FORESTRY SERVICE 31 

and teach him what you can about the theory of 
forestry. Will you do it? ” 

At this Mackenzie’s face grew positively sad. 

“ I wish I could — but everyone on the party, 
except the packer and the cook, must be a mem- 
ber of the Service and that means taking a civil 
Service examination. Fll have to Start before 
your young friend could do that.” 

“Bosh!” ejaculated Link O’Day. “ Isn’t 
there an examiner in town?” 

“ I think so, but ” 

“No buts. If you want me to go along with 
you, you’ll stir that examiner up. He’ll get a 
hurry on if you teil him youTe short on assist- 
ants and you’ye got to have this young fellow, 
vron’t he?” 

“ I guess so,” said Don rather dubiously, but 
he was caught into the stream of O’Day’s 
enthusiasm. “Anyhow, I can try.” 

“ That’s the ticket ! ” was his reward. “ Come 
on back to the hotel and have a bite of break- 
fast with me. You can look over your new 
assistant then. The burros can wait.” 

As they walked towards the hotel and food, 
O’Day learned that the examinations were not 


32 JERRY KING 

hard and that Mackenzie would coach Jerry on 
the subjects most likely to be brought up. When 
they arrived Jerry was waiting, a little puzzled 
as to what had happened to bis chum. When he 
had introduced Don Mackenzie, O’Day related 
the happenings of the morning. 

“You are sure some hustler,” said the boy, 
gratitude in his tone, “and if Mr. Mackenzie 
can get me the chance to try the exam, I’ll do 
all I can to make good. The school I went tp 
didn’t teach many things but what it did 
certainly sticks ! 

“ I guess you’ll be all right then,” said the 
Ranger. “What they ask are the elementary 
things mostly. Come over to my quarters and 
I’ll lend you some books. You’d better spend 
every spare minute brushing up your three R’s.” 


CHAPTER III 


ON RECONNAISSANCE 

Don Mackenzie found that the civil Service 
examiner was willing to Help things along. 
Therefore, two days after he had arrived in 
Taney, Jerry King tackled the examination 
which, if he passed, would give him another 
job with Uncle Sam. 

He did not fail, for, as he had said, thejittle 
he had been taught had been imparted in such 
a way that it had remained in his mind. The 
news was brought back to the hotel by Mac- 
kenzie who had waited until the examiner had 
given his verdict. 

“ YouVe passed, King,” he cried, as he came 
onto the hotel porch. “ It was a dose shave 
but you made it. YouTe a Forest Assistant 
now and a member of the Service ! ” 

The suspense was over. Jerry smiled happily 
for he had made good. 


33 


34 JERRY KING 

Fine stuff ! ” said Link quietly. “ But I 
knew you’d make it, Jerry. Well, Chief,” he 
turned to Mackenzie with a smile, “ there’s 
nothing eise to keep us f rom the trail, is there ? ” 
For a moment the young fellow looked startled 
at the title O’Day had given him. He started 
to speak, but Link forestalled him. 

“You’re the boss from now on — remember. 
Fm just the packer and under your Orders as 

well as Jerry here ” 

^^You — you are going along with the 
party?” said Jerry, surprised. “I didn’t know 
that. Neither of you said anything about it. 
I thought you planned to go farther north.” 

“ No, you can’t get rid of me yet,” laughed 
the man. “ Besides, the chief here needed me 
as well as you to make up his party.” 

“ And it’s lucky Fve got you,” was Don’s 
fervent remark. “ Now Fll be sure that we’ll 
have food when we need it. Fve been told that 
the greatest trouble on reconnaissance was the 
difficulty of getting supplies. Packers seem to 
be a shiftless and undependable tribe. Well, 
we’ll be oif to-morrow as soon as it’s light. I 
want to make our first camp at the township 


ON RECONNAISSANCE 35 

Corner where we Start in work. It will take us 
most of the day to get there.” 

“ We’ll be ready. TU see to the burros 
to-night.” 

The Start was made without fuss or flurry. 
O’Day proved to be a master hand at loading 
the burros with the thousand and one things 
that were necessary. He was ably assisted by 
Petey, the cook, to whom this sort of trip evi- 
dently was no novelty. He was a solemn cuss, 
but efficient. Mackenzie and the remainder of 
his party turned up in good order, and as the 
morning sun shot up from the horizon the little 
party got under way. 

Düring the morning, Jerry became acquainted 
with the fellows who were to be his companions 
for the next few months. 

Mackenzie, the chief, he of course knew and 
liked. There were three other Rangers — Billy 
Barksdale, Bob Holland, Bill Rupert, with four 
assistants, including himself. These assistants 
were about his own age, while the rangers were 
older. Only one of the boys, Jack Mays, had 
been on reconnaissance before. The others 
were looking forward to it as a lark. Jack 


36 JERRY KING 

wasn't so optimistic — he had something to say 
about its being not so much fun as hard work. 
Still, it was better than fire guard work, he 
admitted. 

It was a tired bunch that limped into the first 
camp towards evening. But Petey was a quick 
worker and soon supper was ready and with it 
their spirits rose. Afterwards, when they were 
all lounging around the camp fire, whose flames 
lighted up the overhanging branches, life seemed 
good. 

Before they turned in, Don Mackenzie as- 
signed the men to their Jobs for the morrow. 

“ Billy, you take the plane table and run the 
base line. Jack will be your rodman. I say, 
King,” he broke off to speak to Jerry, “ can you 
handle an axe?” 

As the boy answered in the affirmative, he 
thought of the forests of wood he had chopped 
while he was earning his keep and going to 
school. Could he use an axe! 

“ Good ! Then you string along with Mr. 
Barksdale. The rest of us will cruise. Except 
you, O’Day. When we break camp in the morn- 
ing, go northeast for about two miles and pitch 


ON RECONNAISSANCE 


37 


a permanent camp in the most likely spot. 
Petey goes with you, of course. That’s all, 
Now who’s ready to turn in ? ” 

The vote was unanimous. A few moments 
later, the party was sleeping away the first 
night of the job. 

The next day Jerry was so busy trying to 
make good on his share of the work that he did 
not have much opportunity to pay attention to 
anything eise. Barksdale, the plane table man, 
was a good fellow but he was anxious to get a 
Start on the base line so that the rangers would 
not be delayed and therefore he was strictly 
business. Jerry’s job was to cut away any brush 
that interfered with his chief’s sighting through 
his instrument at the rod held by Jack. Also he 
was to mark the line by blazing the trees and 
to cut marks to serve as the stations from which 
the cruisers started. 

By quitting time he was weary and the mus- 
cles brought into play by the swinging of the 
axe were sore. So he was glad to get to camp. 

O’Day and Petey had found a level space a 
little back from a noisy stream. Here they had 
pitched the tents securely, for it would be ten 


38 JERRY KING 

days or more before there would be any neces- 
sity for moving on the camp. Almost before 
Jerry was through ducking bis head in the water 
of the brook, a shout came from the cook tent. 

“ Take it away-y-y! ” 

This was Petey’s substitute for a dinner bell. 
Everybody seemed to know what it meant, for 
a moment or so later the whole outfit ravenously 
attacked the good things he had evolved. 

The next day Jerry got his first idea of the 
purpose of the work in hand. Düring the morn- 
ing the brush along the line Mr. Barksdale 
seemed to be following, was as thick as it had 
been the day before, but after lunch had been 
eaten, the dense thickets gave way to the com- 
parative open country of a pine woods. The 
thick branches of the firs, which kept out the 
life-giving sun, and the heavy carpet of needles 
which covered the ground, proved too much of 
a handicap for any sort of growth to overcome. 
This condition made it possible for Jerry to 
relax his labors and pay attention to what his 
companions were doing. 

Mr. Barksdale noticed the interest he was 
taking and called him. 


ON RECONNAISSANCE 


39 


“ Wondering what we’re up to?” he asked 
with a smile. “ Stick along here with me until 
we need some more chopping and I’ll try to 
explain.” 

“ Thanks,” said Jerry, pleased that the man 
he was to work with seemed such a good fellow. 
“ I’ve had a lot of experience rodding for a 
transit, but this contraption of yours is a new 
one on me.” He pointed to the square board 
which stood on a tripod. 

“ We call it a plane table and it works very 
much as a transit, except that with it we can 
make a map as we go along.” 

“ IVe carried a transit enough miles to know 
something about one,” commented Jerry. I’ve 
just put in a year as rodman with the Reclama- 
tion Service.” 

“ You have?” asked Barksdale with interest. 
“ Well, the experience you’ve had won’t harm 
you any. That bunch is doing great things. But 
of course they can’t touch us!” Jerry noted 
the rivalry that evidently existed between the 
two branches of Uncle Sam’s activity for the 
common good. 

''You haven’t been with us long enough to 


40 JERRY KING 

teil, but if you don’t say after a month or so 
we’re a better outfit and are doing more worth- 
while things, I’ll eat my hat.” He broke ofif, 
then ordered Jerry to put a blaze in a near-by 
tree and mark it with a Station number. When 
the boy came back he was determined to lead 
the talk back to the work in hand. He ap- 
proached, therefore, with a request for further 
information on the tip of his tongue. 

“ But, teil me, Mr. Barksdale, how you work 
the plane table.” 

“ It’s mighty simple. You see, I’ve got a 
sheet of cross-section paper fastened on the top 
of the board by thumb tacks. This represents 
what we call a township or thirty-six square 
miles. It is the unit of the System of surveying 
followed by the government.” 

“ But that’s a pretty big bit of land. Wouldn’t 
it work out better if there were smaller pieces 
to go by? ” 

“ Bless you, we have smaller pieces. The 
township is first divided into its thirty-six square 
miles, or sections. These sections are in turn 
divided into quarter sections or plots one-half 
mile square, and then finally the quarter sections 


ON RECONNAISSANCE 


41 


into four smaller tracts or ‘ forties/ as they are 
calied because they work out at forty acres each. 
In cruising you’ll find that you’ll be more both- 
ered about the forties than the townships. The 

old saying might be changed a little Look 

out for the forties and the townships will look 
out for themselves! 

“ The sections are numbered as you see, from 
Number One in the northeast corner west to the 
northwest corner and then back east and then 
again west and east until you get to Number 
Thirty-six, which is the southeast corner.” 

“ But have the ‘ forties ' any special num- 
bers?” inquired Jerry. 

“ No. We know ’em by the way they lie. 
This one in the very corner would be calied the 
northeast quarter of the northeast quarter — 
and so on.” 

** I see,” said Jerry. “ Everything Starts from 
the northeast on a survey.” 

“That’s right. But I’d advise you to make 
very sure that you remember what I’ve just told 
you, for the Chief might ask you any time to go 
to Southwest of Southwest, section seventeen of 
township six north. To get there you’ll have to 


42 JERRY KING 

know what he means. But, shucks, rve.been 
explaining the rectangiilar System of survey 
instead of telling you about the plane table.” 

“ What’s the telescope thing on top?’^ asked 
the boy. 

“ We call it an alidade. You see, it is really 
two upright sights mounted on a heavy base 
that I can slide over the top of the table. Fve 
got a telescope attached to one of the sights so 
I can do long shoots and at the same time com- 
pute the distance. It saves time. The way it 
Works is this: Yesterday, when we started in 
at the Corner post — it marked a corner of a 
township — I set up the board and put a com- 
pass on one corner of it. Then I turned the 
table until the compass showed it was square 
with the points of north, south, east and west. 
We call that " orientating’ the board. Then I 
tacked on the township sheet and placed the 
alidade on the spot which corresponded to the 
corner where we stood. Then I sent Jack out 
with the rod and got a sight on it through the 
telescope. When I figured the distance he’d 
gone I put a mark on the map where the rod 
had been and drew a line to it from the spot 


ON RECONNAISSANCE 43 

where we began. The base of the alidade marks 
the direction and besides makes a fine ruler.” 

Jerry was deeply interested. “ Then you can 
measure distance with the alidade? With a 
transit we used a Steel chain.” 

“ You did that because it was necessary for 
you to get exact distances. For our needs rough 
measurements are sufficient and we get them by 
a reading of the rod through the telescope and 
then doing a simple sum of figures. You’ll be 
surprised, though, when we get to the next 
marked township corner to find what little error 
occurs in this way of measurement.” 

“ Just what are we accomplishing now by the 
use of the plane table? ’’ asked the boy. 

“We are running what we call a base line. 
That is a starting point for the rangers who 
will cruise the timber on each side of it. Tve 
had you cut a blaze on a tree every quarter mile 
— that is what we call the stations. They are 
set where the middle of every tier or column of 
‘ forties ’ in the section cuts the base line. You 
will understand more about it when Chief Mac- 
kenzie promotes you to cruising on your own 
hook. Besides that, I am making a rough map 


44 JERRY KING 

of the country we are going over and checking 
up the altitudes pretty carefully. Map making 
is quite simple with the tools we have. When- 
ever there is some outstanding feature of coun- 
try, such as a stream or cliff, I send Jack over 
to it with the rod and take a shot at it through 
my trusty telescope. When I have the distance, 
I sketch in the object by means of its special 
Symbol.” 

“ I see,” said Jerry. “ It’s all new stuff as far 
as I am concerned and I sure want to learn.” 

‘‘ That’s the ticket ! ” approved Mr. Barks- 
dale. “ YouVe got to keep on that way if you 
want to get ahead at this game. But, hüstle up 
and cut a Station in the tree against which Jack 
is sleeping. I’ve been talking so much the lazy 
cub has had a chance to doze.” 

^^I’m awfully sorry ” began Jerry, but 

Barksdale broke him off with a laugh. 

“ Don’t worry about that. If IVe helped you 
to understand what you’re doing, you’ll make up 
in better work for the delay. Run along ! ” 


CHAPTER IV 


O’DAY’S STORY 

O’Day had arranged things so that Jerry 
bunked in the same tent with him. 

“ When I make trips for grub you’ll have to 
hold down the chateau yourself,” he warned the 
boy when he proposed it. “And a tent mate’s 
a comfort when the timber wolves begin howling 
late at night.” 

“ Don’t let’s worry about that,” was Jerry’s 
reply. “ I’d rather be with you while you’re 
here even if I’m scared green when you’re 
gone.” 

“ If that’s the way you feel about it, I reckon 
a few wolf howls are not going to scare you 
much,” commented Link, secretly much pleased. 

One night, after the party had been out a 
week or two. Link and Jerry strolled away from 
the camp fire and happened on a mossy bank 
overlooking a moonlit canyon. They feil into 
45 


46 JERRY KING 

talk and for one reason or another the conversa- 
tion shifted around to the boy’s life in Chicago. 

“ The name ‘ Tim Fallen ’ has been bothering 
me,” said O’Day, holding his head in his hands. 

Seems familiär somehow. As if I’d known it 
before.” 

“Think hard,” begged Jerry. “ If you had 
known him you might have known something 
about me ! ” 

“I can’t place him. I’m sorry, lad, but it 
just won’t come. Perhaps it will flash on me 
later. I hope so. But I’ve been in Chicago 
many times and I ran across a lot of queer 
people. Besides, the name isn’t very unusual.” 

‘‘ No, it isn’t.” Jerry was downeast, for his 
hopes had been high for a moment. ‘‘Well, I 
might just as well forget all that. I’ll never 
know who I am really. What difference does it 
make anyway? ” he finished bravely. 

“ None,” stated the man with emphasis. He 
too feit that the matter was hopeless and real- 
ized that Jerry would be much better otf if he 
could forget the whole thing. Therefore he 
determined to help keep his mind off it. “To teil 
you the truth, you might not be as happy as you 


O’DAY’S STORY 47 

are now if you found out what you want to 
know.” 

What do you mean ? ” 

Just that. Your family might not be much 
better than the Fallons — probably worse, be- 
cause they let you go to the cabman/' 

“ I see,” said Jerry, thoughtfully. 

“Also they might be like mine were. My 
family drove me away from home when I wasn’t 
much older than you are now.” 

“ Teil me about it,” begged the boy eagerly. 

Perhaps it was the growing afifection he feit 
for the boy or perhaps he thought it might take 
Jerry’s mind oif his own troubles, that led Link 
O’Day to teil the story. In all likelihood it was 
a little of both that unlocked his lips. 

“All right, I will, although Pve kept it to 
myself so long that IVe almost forgotten it. I 
was born in one of the New England villages 
that duster around the deep harbors which shel- 
tered the vessels of the great whaling fleets 
before the trade died out. You’ve never seen 
the ocean, have you ? ” 

“ No, but it must be something like the lake 
at Chicago ” 


48 


JERRY KING 

“ Nothing at all like was the rejoinder. 
‘‘ The lake is a duck pond compared to the real 
thing. But that doesn’t matter. Anyhow, like 
all the other children of the place, I grew up 
with the love of the sea deep in me. I knew 
how to sail a boat, for my father owned a fleet 
of fishing schooners, and about the first thing I 
remember was feeling the lift and fall of the 
waves. What wonderful times I had! Then 
came trouble. My father died and my mother, 
who had my little brother to take care of, sent 
me to a farmer uncle, who lived in Illinois. He 
had promised me a good home, but it turned out 
to be a good job — for him. He had not asked 
me to come from any charitable impulse, but 
because he saw a way to get a farmhand without 
having to pay wages.” 

*‘Why didn’t you go home when you found 
what sort of a place it was going to be? ” asked 
Jerry. 

“ I was too proud. Besides, I knew my mother 
had all she could do to get along without bother- 
ing about me. I stuck it out for several years, 
but at last I could stand it no longer. I was 
homesick for the sea and all the broad clean 


O’DAY’S STORY 49 

space it represented. The farm was a narrow, 
dirty place and I hated it. 

“Then, one day, my uncle did something so 
mean and little and unjust that when it was 
added to all the mean and petty and unjust 
things he had done before, it seemed too much 
to bear. I left. Without a word, I struck out 
across country until I reached one of the 
branches of the Mississippi River. I was lucky 
enough to get a Job on a timber raft that took 
me well down the river. Then, when it broke 
up, I made my way to New Orleans as best I 
could, sometimes on foot, but mostly on some 
sort of river craft. 

At New Orleans I wrote to my mother and 
waited long enough, as I thought, to get an 
answer. It did not come and I shipped on a 
schooner bound for Boston. It was my first 
voyage and it was a long one. Off Hatteras 
we ran into a gale that drove us far off shore 
and we fought head winds all the rest of the 
way. 

“When the crew was paid off in Boston, I 
made tracks for my old home, only to find that 
while Fd been on the water, my mother had 


50 JERRY KING 

died.’* O’Day’s voice was still for a moment. 
Then he went on. My little brother had been 
sent to the uncle I had left so recently. I was 
sorry for the kid, but it was the only place for 
him. As soon as I could, I left and went back 
to the sea. I shipped to the far East and 
knocked around on the Seven Seas. As I grew 
older I worked up until I was able to hold down 
a second mate’s berth.” 

“ But — but you didn’t stick to the sea,” said 
the boy, puzzled. 

“ Evidently not,” laughed Link, “ for here I 
am, packing grub for a forestry outfit. No, 
much as I loved it, I quit. The way of it was 
this: Fd been on a packet that brought up to 
Frisco as cargo a selected strain of Australian 
cattle. I learned later it was because some of 
the more progressive cattlemen wanted to im- 
prove the breed of the longhorns on their ranges 
that they had sent so far a way for new stock. 
When we docked I had to boss the discharging 
of the cattle. I was sore about it too, as I 
wanted to get ashore and Start to blow in the 
money Fd earned. Oh, I was a regulär sailor 
then, Fm ashamed to say. Anyhow, the cattle- 


O’DAY’S STORY 


51 


man who came to take Charge of the herd Struck 
up an acquaintanceship with me — seemed to 
think I paid a little more attention than most 
mates to making it as easy as possible for the 
cattle. At last the job was done and I streaked 
it for the rum joints. 

“ Three days later I — I woke up to find 
myself in jail. There has been a fight in a 
saloon and someone had been shot. They said 
I had done it and, as far as I knew, I might 
have. My money was gone and I hadn’t a 
friend. Or, at least, I didn’t know I had one.” 

“The cattleman?” breathed Jerry, tremen- 
dously interested. “He came to help you?” 

“ Yes, Thad Holman came along and he was, 
is, and ever will be a friend if it’s in my power 
to keep him that way.” 

“ Good for him ! ” said Jerry, breaking into 
the long pause that had followed the last re- 
mark. “And how was he able to help? You 
were in a mighty tight place.” 

“ I know it. What Holman did was to find 
the man who had been shot, and get him the 
best of doctors and care. Then he waited for 
the man to have a moment of consciousness. 


52 JERRY KING 

For three days and nights he never left the 
wounded man’s side. At last, just before the 
poor devil passed out, he roused and Thad made 
the most of it. He got a Statement that let me 
out entirely but did not incriminate anj^one eise. 
It had been a gang feud and it had served their 
purpose to have the thing put on me. 

“ But Holman did not stop there. When I 
was released he insisted on my coming out to 
his ranch. I protested, saying he’d done every- 
thing for me and that I wasn’t going to be any 
more bother to him. It didn’t make any dif- 
ference; he made me go. 

“ I must have been a funny sight when I first 
tried to ride a horse ! But the queer thing about 
it is that once a sailor gets the hang of riding, 
he makes a wonderful horseman. Something 
about the balance of your body on a heaving 
deck is like sitting a bucking bronco. 

“ Anyhow, after Fd been on the ranch a while 
I was Content with the land and my homesick- 
ness for the sea left me, little by little. Fd had 
my last drop of liquor — my nearness to hang- 
ing on account of it showed me what a foolish 
and worthless thing drink was. Having nothing 


O’DAY’S STORY 


53 


to worry about except the work I was doing, I 
began to do it pretty well and as Holman took 
rather a special interest in me, I was given the 
Chance of taking the cattle to the stockyards in 
Chicago. That’s how I came to know the Loop 
so well.” 

“ But you haven’t always stayed with Mr. 
Holman,” Jerry put in. “ He said you came and 
went, more often than he liked.” 

“ I know it. The call of the sea would ring 
too loud in my ears at times and off I’d have 
to go. Sometimes Fd really go to sea for a 
voyage or two, but more often some new sort 
of activity would strike my fancy before I got 
to a seaport and Fd take a whirl at it out of 
sheer curiosity. When the job was finished, 
whatever it was, I’d drift back to Holman’s, 
which was, as you know, about the nearest place 
to home I had.” 

''What a wonderful time you must have 
had ! ” Jerry exclaimed. “ Was it on those trips 
that you were an actor and all the other 
things ? ” 

“ I wasn’t an actor long,” laughed Link. 
“The audience wouldn’t let me. Not that I 


54 JERRY KING 

blame ’em much at that. Yes, Jerry, I have 
had a crack at pretty much everything, but I 
haven’t had a wonderful time while I was about 
it. Adventure, new sights, and excitement, I’ve 
had all these, but I’ve been lonely all through 
it. It’s funny that I should have feit that 
way, for wherever I have been I’ve had lots of 
friends.” 

“ I know what you mean,” was Jerry’s low 
comment. 

“ You sure do, you poor kid, and I don’t 
want you to know any more of it, if I can 
help it.” 

“ You can, if you let me stick around with 
you,” said Jerry. I — I feel all right when 
I’m with you — sort of — of like I feit with 
Mrs. Olson. It’s as if you — you were my 
brother.” 

"‘My brother!” said the man softly, “ my 
brother! Why, Jerry, you might be my brother 
in real fact. That uncle of mine was just mean 
enough to be capable of turning a kid over to 
someone to keep, provided he could save money 
byit!” 

“You mean it?” gasped the boy, scarcely 


O’DAY’S STORY 55 

crediting his ears. “ You think there’s a 
Chance ” 

“ Pefhaps, but it’s a mighty slim one. My 
mother must have had some money when she 
died and likely it was sent to that uncle with 
the baby. When he found you — I mean the 
baby — was too small to be anything but a 
trouble, the probable thing was that he farmed 
the baby — I mean you — out to someone. He’d 
do anything, that man, to save a dollar ! ” 

“ Link, if it was only true ! ” 

Well, I’m going to make one big effort to 
find out, anyway. When I make my first trip 
back for grub, Fll do some telegraphing and 
see what I can learn. In the meantime ” 

“Yes, Link?” 

“ In the meantime, let’s take it for granted 
that it’s true.” 

“ You mean that we’ll pretend we’re 
brothers?” 

“ If you want to.” 

“Do I? Oh, Link!” 

The exclamation needed no explaining. It 
was the cry of a kid’s heart starving for affec- 
tion. O’Day’s eyes were suspiciously moist as 


56 JERRY KING 

he gripped the boy’s hand and patted him on 
the shoulder. 

'^You’re the sort of brother I’d like, Jerry, 
my lad!” 


CHAPTER V 


CRUISING 

After the talk with O’Day on the moonlight 
night, Jerry was in high spirits. Only a few 
times before in his life had he feit the future 
was so bright, and it had a direct result in 
the increased efficiency with which he went 
about his work. He had been interested before, 
now he was full of enthusiasm and practically 
tireless. 

It was not long before his industry brought 
him to the attention of Don Mackenzie, who 
naturally had been giving most of his time to 
the systematizing of the work of the party and 
had had little opportunity to observe the work 
of the individuals of which it was made up. 

One night, just before Jerry turned in, he 
was surprised to hear Mackenzie call: 

King!” 

'' Yes, sir,” he answered, turning back towards 
the camp fire. 


57 


58 JERRY KING 

“ You’re to go out with Bill Rupert to- 
morrow. Good night.” 

Mackenzie had stepped away towards his tent 
before Jerry’ s mind got back to normal working 
Order, so the boy had no time to say a word 
of thanks for the chance that had been given 
him. He had not expected to be put on ranger 
work so soon. It was rare good fortune that 
he had. His first thought was to teil Link 
O’Day what the morrow was to bring to him 
and then he realized that Link was not there 
to teil. The man had been gone since early 
morning on his first trip outside ” to bring 
in the fresh Stores that were needed. 

“ Well, it will be a surprise for him when 
he gets back,” thought Jerry, ’specially so as 
he will find me a full-fledged cruiser by then.” 

But a horrible doubt seized him. “ That is, 
I will be if — if I make good. But I will make 
good or break a leg ! ” 

The next morning he was singled out by big 
Bill Rupert, a middle-aged chap who, while he 
knew the forest like a book, had never been 
äble to raise himself beyond the rank of a 
ranger, probably because the leadership quality 


CRUISING 


59 


was lacking in him. Before they started out, 
Jerry noticed that his place with the base line 
crew had been taken by a chap called Randolph 
Blair, who had been tried out as a cruiser at 
the beginning of the trip. Jerry wondered if 
this fellow had failed to make good, and 
breathed a little prayer that he would not fail 
too. 

With his instructor he walked along the base 
line until Rupert signaled a stop beside one of 
the stations Jerry had set himself. 

“We’ll Start here and cruise north,” said 
the man simply, setting his Jacob’s staff into 
the ground and screwing a field compass on 
its top. “ The most difficult thing for you to 
learn at first will be pacing the distances, so 
you had better not bother about anything eise 
for a time.” 

As he spoke, he pulled around the clocklike 
affair that was slung over his shoulder by a 
strap and began to tinker with it. 

“That’s a pretty big clock to carry all over 
the place,” ventured Jerry. 

Rupert laughed heartily. 

'' Clock? That’s rieh! It’s an aneroid barom- 


60 JERRY KING 

eter and it’s all we have to go by to get the 
elevation above sea level. You see, I set it 
by the figures Billy Barksdale has marked on 
the Station and then as I carry it up or down 
hill the difference in air pressure makes the 
hand register the approximate rise or fall in 
feet. See?” 

Jerry did not entirely under stand, but he 
determined he would take the first opportunity 
of learning more of the theory of air pressure. 

“ I think so,” he answered, “ but I hope it 
will be more accurate than I think this pacing 
of distances is likely to be. Seems to me that 
just counting your Steps is a rather rough way 
of measuring.” 

“ It comes out a lot closer than you think.” 

“Then, too, a tall man takes longer steps 
than a short one ” 

“ I know it, but there’s a way to correct that. 
Caesar, or one of those old Roman chaps, found 
it out. Almost every man takes a shorter Step 
with one foot than the other, but it is true prac- 
tically of everybody that two natural steps 
together equal exactly the man’s own height. 
What do you know about that?” 


CRUISING 


61 


“ Then all you have to know is your height, 
and count every two steps instead of every one? 
At the end you multiply your total by your 
height.” 

“ That’s the theory, but as you get in practice 
you’ll be able to teil by how many inches you 
are likely to miss three feet to a Step. It’s 
just practice, that’s all. Let’s Start. Fll run 
the line and keep the notebook; it’s up to you 
to let me know how far we’ve gone. Remember 
we are cutting right down the middle of a tier 
of * forties ’ and I’ll want to know whenever 
we strike a forty line. The first one will 
be ” 

“ Oh, I know that ! A forty is twenty chains 
square. That’s thirteen hundred and twenty 
feet and figures out at about four hundred and 
forty paces ” 

“ But there will be lots of stops before you 
get to the next section. I’ve got to figure the 
contour every hundred feet and estimate the 
timber as I go along. But more of that later. 
Let’s pull our freight!” 

At first, Jerry was bothered trying to keep 
his count straight and got badly balled up, but 


62 JERRY KING 

the Tanger came to his help. Big Bill probably 
had figured that Jerry would make mistakes 
and had counted the paces on his own hook, 
besides making his map and running the line. 
But as the morning grew older, the thing seemed 
easier and the boy was able to notice other 
things than the mechanical counting of the 
Steps he was taking. He was immensely pleased 
when three times running his count was the 
same as Rupert’s. 

It was not until his companion announced 
that it was lunch time that he realized that he 
was both hungry and tired. 

“ Pretty good for a beginner,” Bill commented 
as they sat beside a little brook to eat their 
Sandwiches. “ After lunch I’ll give you a chance 
at the notebook and Pli do the pacing.” 

The first thing they did after lunch, however, 
was to Start back so they could finish at the 
base line about quitting time. This was done 
by beginning from the line they had followed 
out during the morning and pacing off a half 
mile at a right angle. This maneuver brought 
them into the middle of the next tier of forties 
to the east. Then, turning another right angle. 


CRUISING 


63 


by reading the compass, they were headed back 
on a line parallel to the one over which they 
had come out. 

“ Now your job, King,” said Rupert, handing 
over the notebook, is to sketch in on the left- 
hand sheet, which you see is ruled into two 
subdivisions of a section, the roads, fences, big 
rocks or anything of unusual interest. Of 
course, you indicate them by the Symbols Barks- 
dale must have taught you.” 

“ I know,” said Jerry, “ but I’m shaky about 

these contour lines ” 

“ They will come easily enough after a little. 
The way you work it is to take a reading of the 
barometer every hundred feet and indicate the 
spot on your map, with the height in feet. Then, 
when you look on each side of you, try to 
imagine what shape the shore line of a lake 
would have if it was lapping at your feet. Then 
draw that shore line on your map.” 

“ But the estimating of the timber ? ” 

“ That only comes with practice. For the 
first few days I will have to teil you and then 
you’ll get onto it for yourself. Down at the 
bottom of the page there is space for all sorts 


64 JERRY KING 

of general remarks — such as the condition of 
the soil, rocky or otherwise, if there is much 
fallen timber, could cattle or sheep ränge here, 
how much is burnt over, and so on.” 

It was nervous work at first and Jerry went 
ahead very slowly, trying not to make more 
mistakes than he could help. His companion 
was a great help, for he was patient and did 
not hurry the beginner. 

At last they checked in at the base line and 
Jerry was much chagrined to find that he was 
more than four chains to the east in error. But 
again Rupert laughed at him. 

“That’s nothing. To teil you the truth, it 
is pretty good. Sometimes things go wrong 
to the best of us and we’re a lot further out 
than that. To be within even two chains of the 
Station you’re aiming at is perfect work. If you 
should hit it exactly you could be sure that it 
was by error. But let’s see your map.’’ 

Jerry handed it over and anxiously awaited 
the verdict. 

“ It’s pretty rough,” said Rupert at last, “ and 
pretty punk, but it’s better than I expected. 
You’ve got a sort of feel for the work.” 


CRUISING 


65 


And with that, Jerry King had to be content. 
He was not sure whether bis work had been 
sufficiently promising to earn him another 
Chance the next day and he was in painful 
suspense until the morning. Would he be 
shipped back to axing for the base line crew 
or be allowed to tackle the much more exciting 
cruising run? 

Mackenzie made no sign but Jerry did not 
breathe freely until he was out of sight of camp 
with Rupert, starting for the next day’s work. 

It went better this day and the days that 
followed and by the time Link O’Day showed 
up again in camp, Jerry had been entrusted with 
a run alone. 

There was, however, one drawback to the 
enjoyment of his progress. Ran Blair, the chap 
who had taken his place on the base line crew, 
had gone out of his way to be disagreeable. 
At first it had not seemed worth bothering about. 
Blair naturally was upset about not making 
good as a cruiser and resentful of the fellow 
who had, but Jerry thought Blair ’s grouch would 
blow over. 

But it didn’t. Blair was a hotheaded youth, 


66 JERRY KING 

who had never been denied anything he wanted 
and he was convinced that he had been put aside 
merely to make place for Jerry, who was, he 
believed, a special protege of the Chief’s. 

What had really happened was that Blair, 
though brilliant, was lazy. He would Start out 
on a run and only go a short distance. Then 
he would fill his notebook from Imagination 
and “ dream in ” the map, to show up only at 
supper time after lazying away the day in the 
woods. 

The only trouble with this scheme was that 
Mackenzie found it out by chance and instead 
of firing him, figured that a more fitting punish- 
ment would be to put him on a job where he 
would have to work and work hard. 

Blair’s tongue was caustic and around the 
camp fire he gave it full play. The older men 
chuckled at him, for he was funny at times, 
and they did not get the undertone of bitterness 
that was directed at Jerry. But one night just 
before Link O’Day got back, he went too far. 
He had been baiting Jerry, commenting on his 
sudden advancement in a mocking way. Jerry 
had laughed good-naturedly. 


CRUISING 


67 


“ Yes/' said Blair, stung to indiscretion by 
bis inability to get a rise out of Jerry, “ it 
seems to pay to stand in with our burro driver. 
Talk about graft and pull — why, that jailbird 
has more influence than ” 

Jerry King did not appear to stand up and 
leap for the Speaker. He left the spot where he 
was sitting as if shot from a catapult. 

“ Blair ! ” he said, keeping his voice under 
control, “ teil the bunch just what sort of a 
jailbird Link O’Day is. Teil ’em, I say!” 

Blair had scrambled to his feet and faced the 
enraged boy. He was an inch or so taller and 
appeared a little the huskier of the two. By 
this time he had regained a measure of control 
over himself, which he had lost at Jerry’s sudden 
spring. 

‘‘And if I don’t?” he challenged. 

“ But you are,” returned Jerry, quietly. 
“ And what’s coming to you, you’ll get anyway.” 

For a long moment the two stood eye to eye 
and then Blair turned to the crowd, who had 
been so surprised by the sudden happening that 
they had not stirred. 

“ I said the truth ! ” cried Ran Blair. “ I 


68 JERRY KING 

heard about it in San Francisco. Link O’Day 
was arrested for shooting a man in a honk-a- 
tonk.” 

“And what did the court decide?” inquired 
Jerry quietly. 

“ Court notbing ! ” flamed up bis antagonist. 
“ He got off but wbo knows wbetber be sbould 
or not ” 

“I do ! ” boomed out in a deep bass voice. 
It was Bill Rupert. “ Wbat d’ye know about 
it anyway? You beard some idle gossip and 
spread it as trutb. I was tbere and I know 
bow Link was falsely accused. Tbere’s no stain 
on bim, men. Am I rigbt ? ” 

A cborus of assent went up. Big Bill spoke 
again — tbis time to Jerry. 

“ You told tbe pup tbere was sometbing 
Corning to bim, lad. Hadn’t you better act as 
delivery boy — now ? ” 

Blair did not wait for furtber warning. Witb 
a rasping breatb, be swung at Jerry, landing, 
luckily, only a glancing blow. Tben tbe battle 
was on. 

It was a brave sigbt. Deep in tbe forest, 
ligbted only by tbe dancing flames of tbe great 





The struggling pair came dose to the fire, locked 
tightly in a cliiich. Just at the edge of the rim of light 
they crashed to the ground. 


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CRUISING 


69 


fire, the fight raged. The extra height of one 
was offset by the greater ruggedness of the 
other. There was little Science displayed; there 
was no time for it. One hit and scrambled 
and tore until one’s breath seemed about to 
burst through one’s heaving ehest. 

Jerry fought for his friend; it was his shining 
armor. That his friend might be his brother 
was his mighty sword. Blair fought with the 
desperation of the one in the wrong who must 
prove his poor case by victory or be ruined 
utterly. 

The end came swiftly. 

The struggling pair came dose to the fire, 
locked tightly in a clinch. Just at the edge of 
the rim of light they stumbled and crashed to 
the ground. Slashing, gouging, they rolled 
towards the flames. 

Blair slipped from his opponent’s grasp, and 
staggered to his feet. Wild, mad fury possessed 
him. With a hoarse cry, he leaped for Jerry, 
now on his knees, and thrust him towards the 
blazing logs! 

Up to this moment the spectators had let 
the fight go on without hindrance. Now, at 


70 JERRY KING 

this cowardly action, they took a hand. Some- 
one, rushing from the shadows, caught Jerry 
back from the fire, while a mob charged on 
Blair with a cry of fury. 

‘‘Stop!” called the man who had rescued 
Jerry. “ Don’t kill him!'’ 

It was Mackenzie, the chief. He had gone 
for a solitary walk and had come back to camp 
just at this climax. 

“ What is it ? he demanded in a crisp, hard 
voice. “ Out with it ! ” 

Big Bill Rupert’s voice drowned out all the 
rest. In a few words Mackenzie heard the 
Story. At the end, he made no comment, con- 
tenting himself with saying to Ran Blair: 

“ Report to the Supervisor ’s office in Taney 
for your time. You are finished with this 
outfit. And I’d get out of camp pretty early 
too!” 


CHAPTER VI 


ON FIRE PATROL 

When the bunch turned out for breakfast 
next morning, Ran Blair was missing. No one 
mentioned bis name but everyone was sure that 
he had taken the Chief’s hint and had dug out 
for a less dangerous spot while they were still 
asleep. 

Jerry was a handsome specimen when he 
showed up. It was a little hard to teil whether 
he had been wrestling with an elephant or been 
run over by a train. One eye was entirely 
closed and his lips were puffed to twice their 
normal size. A few jocular remarks were made 
about his looks, but in such a manner that the 
undercurrent of real sympathy and pride was 
evident. He had gone up a good many notches 
in the estimation of his comrades. But, as so 
often is the case with a bunch of rough men, 
the only way they could show how they feit 
was by joking about it. 

71 


72 JERRY KING 

Mackenzie asked Jerry whether he feit up 
to his run. Although he had a weak hankering 
for a lazy day in which to let his bruises heal, 
he would not give in to it. 

When he checked in that night, he found him- 
self only a very few feet away from the Station 
he was supposed to tie up to — a much better 
performance than he had ever given before. 
When he reported at camp and told his figures, 
Bill Rupert explained it. 

“ Sure you did ! And why not, with one blind 
eye? If you’d had both you’d have landed in 
the next township ! ’’ 

The boy rather dreaded having to teil Link 
of the occurrence and he blessed the luck that 
brought his friend to camp during the day, when 
he was on his run. O’Day, therefore, got a 
picturesque but wholly imaginative story from 
the cook, out of which had been left all refer- 
ence to what had started the fight. So, when 
he got back to camp and O’Day started to lecture 
him on the evils of scrapping, he was much 
relieved. Then the thing was dropped and 
neither spoke of it for a long time. 

When at last the nights began to grow too 


ON FIRE PATROL 


73 


cool for comfort, Mackenzie headed his party 
around and they worked in towards their start- 
ing point. By this time Jerry had become a 
pretty proficient cruiser and the Chief advised 
him to take his examination for the rank of 
ranger. The idea pleased the boy but before 
he finally decided what he’d do he brought the 
question up to Link O’Day. 

“What do you think about it?” 

O’Day hesitated before replying. When he 
did it was by asking another question. 

“ Do you like the game well enough to stick 
it out the rest of your life?” 

“ It’s a good game, Link,” hedged Jerry. 

“ I know that, but the question is, is it good 
enough for a lif etime ? ” 

“I don’t know,” Jerry admitted. “I like it, 
it’s a clean, fair business, but — but ” 

“But what?” 

“Oh, I don’t know. You — you won’t be 
with me, for one thing.” 

“ No, but don’t let that influence you. I won’t 
be far away. As it is, I’m not coming back 
when I make the next trip out. We’re so near 
home, no more grub will be needed. I’m going 


74 JERRY KING 

up to Canada to a soft wood tract I know of. 
Think I may do a bit of contract logging.” 

‘‘And what’ll I do?” 

“ Mackenzie says he’s got a fire patrol job 
that will carry you over the winter if you wänt 
it. I’d like you to have a go at it whether you 
sign up with the Service or not That part of 
forestry is the important part.- This cruising 
thing is bunk, as I’ve told you.” 

Jerry was about to flare up in defense of the 
Service, but by this time he had learned that 
Link’s opinion could not be changed. On other 
things he was the most open-minded man in the 
World, but he could not or would not grant merit 
to anything but the theory of reconnaissance 
work. So Jerry let it pass. 

“ I guess it’s no go. Link,” he said after a 
pause. “ ril stay on fire patrol because you 
think it’s good stuff, but I’ll have to pass up 
the examination. I want to drag along with 
you!” 

“ I wanted you to decide that way,” said 
O’Day, smiling, “but I wouldn’t influence your 
decision. It was too important a one for you.” 

“ But when you get settled up in Canada and 


ON FIRE PATROL 75 

there’s a place for me, you’ll surely send for 
me?” 

“You bet I will! First thing! But in the 
meantime study up on scaling lumber.” 

You mean measuring it after it’s been cut? ” 

“Yes, and every thing eise you can pick up 
about logging. Surely there will be some mills 
in Operation in your patrol district. Spend as 
much of your free time around them as you 
can.” O’Day hesitated for a moment, then went 
on : “ And, Jerry, I may have to go to Chicago 
before I shoot up to Canada ” 

“ You mean about ” 

Yes, about you — that is, us. I had a tele- 
gram that reports some progress.” 

“ Then you have already started to hunt up 
things? ” 

“ / haven’t, but I put somebody on the job in 
Chicago. A friend of mine.” 

“ Teil me some more about it.” 

There isn’t enough yet. Unless there is 
more word for me when I get down to Taney 
I won’t even go myself. It’s mighty slim evi- 
dence so far. Well, lad, let’s turn in. Fm 
starting to-morrow.” 


76 JERRY KING 

After O’Day had gone off for the last time 
with his burros, Jerry told Don Mackenzie 
of his decision. To his surprise, the Chief 
approved. 

“ Much as I love the Service, Jerry, and as 
much as it has done for me, I think if I had 
to choose between it and sticking to a chap 
like O’Day, I’d pass up the Service.” 

“ But will it make any difference about that 
job on fire patrol?” 

“ Not a bit. You can hold it as long as you 
want and go when you like.” 

“ That’s mighty decent of you, Mr. Mackenzie. 
At any rate, I’H work as hard as I can while 
I am on the job.” 

“ I know you will, Jerry. I’H see to the job 
just as soon as we pull in.” 

He was as good as his word and only a 
few days later Jerry was learning the ropes as 
a fire guard, that policeman of the open whose 
enemy is not the burglar or pickpocket, but the 
crackling monster of flame. Jerry soon learned 
that all the national forests are efficiently policed 
by these guards, and that as intricate a System 
is worked out for them as for a city. 


ON FIRE PATROL 


77 


In the forest supervisor’s office is a detailed 
map on which every outlook point is marked. 
These points, which are so placed as to command 
a view of all the surrounding forest, usually are 
equipped with a telephone, and the guard’s duty 
is to report from each one in his district at 
certain times. In this way, the main office man 
makes sure that the guard on patrol is doing 
his duty and that there is no fire in his neigh- 
borhood. 

Jerry was assigned a district and it amazed 
him the number of square miles he was expected 
to guard. But the explanation was easy. He 
had eleven outlook points to visit and it took 
him two days on horseback to cover them all. 
But from each of these points he could cover 
an enormous Stretch of territory through a 
telescope. A careful survey would show him 
the first puff of gray smoke that would mean 
a fire. 

Should he detect such a puff of smoke, his 
first duty was to telephone to the supervisor’s 
office, reporting the direction it lay from his 
Station and the approximate distance. The 
Supervisor would then get in touch with as 


78 JERRY KING 

many other stations as possible and learn from 
them the direction from which they saw the fire. 
By drawing lines on his map which corresponded 
in direction to the reports, he could teil exactly 
the location of the fire, for where the lines 
crossed, the trouble lay. The next job would 
be to get firefighters to the scene of action as 
quickly as possible. 

At first Jerry found the loneliness a bit hard 
to endure. On the cruising party he had been 
by himself all day, it is true, but at night he 
could come back to find the crowd around the 
camp fire ready for any sort of companionship. 
But as he grew more used to it, he began to 
like the stillness of the forest, especially when 
the snow covered everything and he had to make 
his rounds on snowshoes. It was a hard life 
but he thrived under it, consoling himself when 
it was bitterly cold by the thought that it would 
be colder in Canada when he joined O’Day. 

Some small fires happened in his district to 
relieve the monotony of things, but none of them 
serious enough to do much damage. 

One thing worried him, though. Except for 
a note that was waiting for him at Taney when 


ON FIRE PATROL 


79 


he got in from reconnaissance, he had not heard 
from Link O’Day. Not for a moment did he 
think that O’Day had forgotten him, but he 
was anxious without quite knowing why. This 
went on for some time and Christmas was near 
at hand. 

What if something had happened to O’Day! 
Link was an adventurous chap and he might 
have been hurt. The long tramps through the 
still woods gave Jerry plenty of time to brood 
and day by day he worried more. At last, when 
the suspense became unbearable, he telephoned 
in to the supervisor’s office and asked that a 
relief should be sent to take his place. 

A day or so later he was back in Taney 
trying to find somebody to whom Link might 
have confided his destination. He might have 
gone to Chicago, but Jerry knew there would 
be no use in trying to trace him there. 

But O’Day had not told his plans to every- 
one and the boy was no better off than he had 
been in the woods. Thinking the matter hope- 
less, he started back to report for work. 

As he was going into the supervisor’s office, 
Don Mackenzie came out of the door. 


80 JERRY KING 

Hello, Jerry. I was wondering where you 
were. There’s a telegram for you upstairs. 
Christmas greetings, I guess, from — ” 

But the remainder of the sentence Jerry 
never heard, for he was rushing up the stairs 
as hard as he could go. When he came out 
again, the worry and fear had gone out of his 
face. 

The message was from O’Day, telling him to 
catch the quiekest train he could and join him. 

Jerry caught sight of a wreath of holly tied 
with a red ribbon hanging in a window of a 
house on the opposite side of the Street. 
Suddenly he realized that it was almost 
Christmas. 

“ Some little Christmas present, I got,” he 
said to himself, clutching his precious telegram 
tight. Some little Christmas present ! 


CHAPTER VII 


JERRY STARTS FOR CAMP 

The telegram Jerry had received told him to 
report at the office of “ Thomas and Olsen ” in 
the little Canadian town of Pentico. When he 
had looked up the trains he found he could just 
about make the journey in time to get to O’Day 
on Christmas, for it was now the day before. 
So anxious was he to get sight of Link O’Day 
before night, that he was asking his way to the 
lumbermen’s office almost before the train had 
come to a standstill beside Pentico’s shanty of 
a Station. 

The route given him, he swung out along the 
Street, which was covered with the hard packed 
snow that would remain there tili spring. The 
wind was still and the sun shone so brightly that 
the air seemed alive with glistening crystals. 
Had the boy happened on a thermometer he 
would hardly have credited the low degree of 
81 


82 JERRY KING 

temperature it showed, so dry was the cold. 

He hurried his Steps until he saw that he 
had come to his goal. On a small building, 
back of which a great shed rose, was the sign 
“Thomas and Olsen.” Jerry thought it prob- 
able that the big building was a sawmill and 
the little shack the spot from which its activities 
were directed. 

Even in the scant moment he had stopped to 
take his bearings, the bitter cold had made itself 
feit and briskly he stepped up to the door and 
entered. An oldish looking man, who had been 
bending over a ledger on a tall desk, looked up, 
seeming a little surprised at the Interruption. 

“ Well? ” he inquired in a rather high pitched 
tone. 

“ Is — is Mr. O’Day here?” 

The bookkeeper looked the boy over before 
answering. 

“ So you’re the lad O’Day has been expect- 
ing.” There seemed to be a note of disappoint- 
ment in his voice. It was as if he had been 
prepared to see a much finer looking specimen 
of a chap. “Well, come over to the stove. 
Mr. Thomas will be here any minute.” 


JERRY STARTS FOR CAMP 83 

“ But where’s Link O’Day? ” Jerry wanted 
to know. 

“ He’s not here now/' was the precise answer. 
“Mr. Thomas will explain.” And with this 
he went back to his work, leaving the boy to 
pull a tall stool up to the glowing red iron stove. 
Here he perched uncomfortably until the myste- 
rious Mr. Thomas should appear, trying the 
while to think what might have happened to 
his friend. 

He did not have time to conjure up many 
explanations before a large, red-faced man 
blustered into the office from the back door. 
Evidently he had just come from the milk He 
caught sight of the lad and came over, asking 
questions and answering them himself. 

“ You young King? Sure, since you are 
here. And in good time teo. Must have started 
right out when you got your partner’s telegram. 
Prompt, that’s the ticket, always be prompt. I 
like it in a young fellow. Your partner will like 
it too or I miss my guess. He’s a great fellow, 
your Partner. I like him, I do for a fact. I 
never hold a grudge — never. Why, I said to 
him just before he left ” 


84 


JERRY KING 

“He’s gone somewheres, then? I thought I 
was to meet him here ! ” bürst in Jerry, deter- 
mined to stem the flow of genial language that 
threatened to drown him entirely. 

Oh, yes, yes. He’s gone up country to 
Twenty-nine. I gave him a chance to make 
some money up there — believe me, the prettiest 
piece of cutting weVe got. As I told you, I 
liked him, so I made him a nice easy contract 
for the best piece of cutting I had. Believe 
me, when I like a man, I show it/’ 

As the man clattered along, Jerry found the 
first pleasant impression he had received, rapidly 
fading. The joviality and cheeriness seemed 
somehow not to ring true, but to serve as a mask 
behind which were hidden motives quite dif- 
ferent from the ones he expressed. 

By chance Jerry caught sight of the book- 
keeper and surprised on his face a smile of 
cynical amusement. Whether its cause was him- 
self or his employer, Jerry could not teil, yet it 
added to his sense of uncomfortableness. As 
he struggled with these thoughts he managed 
again to stop the lumberman’s monologue with 
a question: 


JERRY STARTS FOR CAMP 85 

“ But what am I to do ? What message did 
Mr. O’Day leave for me?” 

“ Why you’re to follow him to his camp and 
scale for him and run the commissary, I guess. 
He wants you to get to him just as quickly as 
ever you can ” 

“ And I want to be with him just as quickly,” 
Jerry cut in. “ How do I get there? ” 

Thomas gave him the necessary directions but 
only in piecemeal fashion. The man liked to 
hear himself talk and especially so when he 
was talking about what a fine fellow he himself 
was. But finally the boy escaped in time to 
catch the jerkwater train that would carry him 
the greater part of the distance. 

As he rode through the snow-covered country, 
his thoughts were full of his interview with 
Thomas. There was nothing definite on which 
he could hang his dislike and fear of the man. 
He suddenly realized that fear was a portion 
of the feeling of repulsion he had undergone; 
not physical fear, but the fear of the unknown. 

“ It’s a lot of bunk!” he thought to himself. 
“ I’m a fool kid. Why shouldn’t Thomas have 
tried to be pleasant to me? Perhaps he meant 


86 JERRY KING 

it.” While this sounded like good sense, it was 
no use; his mind refused to accept Thomas at 
face value. Thomas was trying to hide some- 
thing; Thomas was an enemy. But wiiy should 
he be? What was the reason? Thomas did not 
know him from Adam! 

Then in a flash an idea came that seemed 
to be the most likely solution of the matter. 

Wasn’t Thomas up to some queer game with 
Link O’Day? Perhaps the man had been so 
careful to try to make a good impression because 
he knew that Link thought a good deal of Jerry 
and might possibly be guided by him. 

This seemed the most feasible explanation, 
but it was beyond the boy to figure out what 
particular thing Thomas had up his sleeve. 
Many possibilities occurred to him, but he did 
not know enough about the whole thing to trust 
any of his ideas. Therefore he dismissed the 
happening from his mind as best he could until 
the time he would be able to talk it over at 
length with Link O’Day. As the wheels clicked 
over the rail-joints and the car jounced over the 
uneven track, his mind dwelt on the new job. 

The long afternoon spun itself out while the 


JERRY STARTS FOR CAMP 87 

boy grew more fidgety. Thomas had told him 
that he could get to Twenty-nine by nightfall 
if things went well. There was a horrid sus- 
picion growing in his mind that things weren’t 
going well and that he’d not get to camp that 
night, for the train kept stopping and seemed 
to go slower and slower between stops. 

He knew that when the train he was on could 
go no further he was to change to a narrow- 
gauge logging train for a fifteen-mile jaunt. 
From there it was a hike on foot to Twenty- 
nine through the woods. Thomas had told him 
that there were certain to be some woodsmen on 
the logging train bound for his destination, who 
would pilot him the last fifteen miles, even if 
no one from camp was down to meet the train. 

There were only two or three passengers 
besides himself in the smoky day coach when 
the engine snorted and stopped with a hissing 
sound that seemed like a sigh of relief at the end 
of a hard job, done well. They piled out into a 
little town of which only the lights could be 
seen in the thick darkness. 

From the shouting and music of a mechanical 
piano that came from a low shack a little more 


88 


JERRY KING 

brightly lighted than the others, Jerry feit sure 
it was a saloon. Probably, too, it was the only 
place he could get a bite to eat, and he was 
famished. He asked the telegraph operator, 
who relieved his mind by telling him that he 
could get a snack at the only boarding house the 
town afforded and still be in time to catch the 
‘^shoo-fly” as he called the woods railroad. 

He was late at the table and had it practically 
to himself. The landlady, a motherly Irish- 
woman called Mrs. Lajeune — she had married 
a Canuck — heaped his plate and told him of 
the falling tree that had made a widow of her. 
But with all her talking, she saw that his plate 
was kept full. It was a better dinner than most, 
she explained, seeing it was Christmas Day. 
But at last he could be urged to eat no more. 
After settling his bill he made for the siding 
where he had been told the train awaited him. 

This was an even more primitive train than 
those which had been run by the government 
on the Reclamation Service. There, at least, 
some sort of passenger coach had been provided 
for the Chance traveler. No coach met his eye 
when he came up to the puffing, fussy little 


JERRY STARTS FOR CAMP 89 

locomotive. Coupled to it was only a miniature 
freight car with an oil lamp hanging from the 
ceiling and a rough bench lining the walls. 

As he hopped in through the side door he 
was glad to see that a red-hot iron stove had 
been installed in a corner. He made for it 
and settled himself to wait for the start. 

The heat, on top of the big dinner he had 
eaten, made him drowsy and he slipped off 
into a doze, which was only broken by the 
entrance of the first of his fellow passengers. 

It was his first sight of the real woodsman. 
He was surprised to find that they were not all 
great giants of men, as what little he had heard 
of their prowess and strength had led him to 
believe. On the contrary, for the most part 
they seemed shorter than most men, although 
Jerry realized this might be accounted for by 
their thick, heavy clothing, which made them 
all so ridiculously fat, thus taking away from 
their height. 

Soon they filled the car, a jovial crowd made 
up of many men talking queer dialects. For 
the most part they were in high good humor 
except that Jerry gathered they considered it 


90 JERRY KING 

a sin and a shame that the little train did not 
leave later, thereby giving them more time for 
their celebration of Christmas. 

The whistle tooted and a few stragglers piled 
in before the side door was shoved shut behind 
them. With a creak the car began to move. It 
was not until things had settled down that any- 
one paid any attention to Jerry King. 

‘‘Ho! What is it we have here?” was the 
shout that marked his discovery as a new face. 
It came from a swarthy little man who had 
secured a place near the stove. “ It is a new- 
comer! Who are you, my brave?” he asked 
with a gust of laughter. “ A woodsman ? ” 

“ I don’t just know,” Jerry came back with 

a laugh. “ I’m going to Twenty-nine ” 

“ You’ll be a woodsman all right when you 
come back, kid,” a heavy voice announced from 
a Corner. “ It’s a tough camp, ain’t it, Pierre? ” 
Pierre seemed to be the first Speaker, for he 
answered : 

“ Not so bad, not so bad. Moreover we got 
good bossman. Perhaps you have come for to 
be scaler, no?” 

“ Mr. O’Day sent for me,” answered Jerry. 


JERRY STARTS FOR CAMP 91 

“ I don’t know what my job is to be. Are you 
going to Twenty-nine too?'’ 

The French Canadian nodded. 

“Then I can go along with you. I don’t 
know where to get olf.” 

You must have no worry about that, my 
brave, for a great bunch of men they get off 
too.” 

But after this no more attention was paid 
him, for a fight had suddenly begun at the other 
end of the car. It was pretty while it lasted, 
but there was not room for the sort of fighting 
these men liked and soon hostilities came to 
an end. Then someone started one of the 
myriad chanteys of the woods, and the stifling 
little car, already full of the smoke of evil 
smelling pipes, rocked with the volume of sound. 
Jerry sat back, keenly enjoying the scene. He 
had seen rough life and a lot of it, but here 
was something different. It seemed to him 
that these men were finer, more wholesome 
than the people he had come in contact with 
before. Perhaps it was because their work was 
in the wilderness of nature — cities had not 
had a chance to spoil them. 


92 JERRY KING 

A song stopped in the middle as the jerky 
motion of the train ceased. The door was slid 
back a little and a man, evidently the conductor, 
ordered that one man should come out at a 
time. This was done in order to collect the 
fare. If they couldn’t pay they had to go to 
the end of the line. 

One chap evidently had been cleaned out and 
did not have money enough to pay his way. 
He sidled to the door amid the jeers of the rest 
of the passengers and just as the door was about 
to be closed, sprang clear over the head of the 
conductor. Probably he would have got away 
had he not been unlucky enough to land in a 
deep snowdrift, from which he tried hard to 
wallow his way out. But the conductor caught 
him as he still floundered and marched him back 
to the car, hoisted him in and slammed the door. 
Until the next Station was reached the shame- 
faced husky was unmercifully joshed, only to 
have enough ransom money laughingly forced 
on him as the train came to a new stop. 

This was the getting off place for Twenty- 
nine and Jerry followed Pierre out into the clear 
moonlight night. There was no sign of a sta- 


JERRY STARTS FOR CAMP 93 

tion, merely a number of huge uneven pyramids 
of snow, which Jerry at once recognized as logs 
piled against the time the logging train could 
handle them. 

The group of men that had tumbled off the 
car waited until it had puffed off before starting 
on their hike to camp. Pierre led the way and 
after a few moments of soft going, their feet 
Struck the hard frozen surface of a siedding 
road. 

The men sang as they strode briskly along 
and Jerry, who did not know the words, whistled 
the air as best he could. The scene they were 
passing through was marvelous. The full moon 
poured its light in amongst the trees and made 
each ice-covered branch twinkle like a forest of 
candle-lit Christmas trees. 

When a twinkling little yellow light appeared 
ahead Jerry King could not believe that they 
had come the three miles Pierre had stated the 
camp was from the railroad. 

Instinctively they quickened their pace and 
not long after burst into the biggest building 
of the group of snow covered habitations called 

Camp Twenty-nine.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


CAMP TWENTY-NINE 

The sudden warmth and light were grateful 
to the boy, who only then realized how cold 
had been the air through which he had come. 
The room was a larger edition of the box car 
as far as the dense smoke and crowd of men 
were concerned, but Jerry discovered its use 
as his eyes traveled around in search of Link 
O’Day. Tiers of bunks lined the walls. It 
was the sleeping place of the camp. When he 
did not discover his friend at the first glance 
he took note of what was going on. A wizened 
old man had been playing a large accordion for 
a dance and he now sat dose up to the stove 
watching the newcomers, who were taking off 
their mackinaws preparatory to joining the fes- 
tivities. A steaming kettle on the stove gave 
off a pungent odor — it was a Christmas drink 
of their own brewing. A few scattered attempts 
94 


CAMP TWENTY-NINE 


95 


at decoration with holly and mistletoe had been 
made, but it was rather in the boisterous spirits 
of the men themselves that the feeling of Christ- 
mas was present. With song and dance they 
were trying to celebrate and perhaps forget their 
homes, where the celebration might have been 
more genuine. But it was an old story with 
them. Logging was done in winter and logging 
was their job. Probably not one man in the 
entire bunkhouse really expected ever to be able 
to spend Christmas with his family. 

Without taking off his outer clothing, Jerry 
went over to the accordion player and asked 
where Link O’Day might be. 

*‘The boss man? He’s been here. I think 
he's gone to his shack,” answered the old fellow 
and relapsed into his absorption in what was 
going on. 

Jerry realized that everyone was too busy 
with his own affairs to direct him, so he slipped 
out the door, determined to find O’Day on his 
own account. 

A light shone in a window at the end of 
another long building. 

“That might be him,” thought the boy and 


96 JERRY KING 

tramped over towards it. When he came to the 
window he looked in and saw O’Day bending 
over a table, figuring busily. 

He knocked at the door and when the com- 
mand to enter came, burst in. 

“ Gee ! but I’m glad to be here, Link,” he 
cried, pumping his friend’s hand up and down. 
“ I thought I was never going to hear from 

you. When the telegram came ” 

“ I sent that when I did not hear from you 
in answer to a letter I wrote as soon as I signed 
Up for this job.” 

“ You wrote then? I never got it! ” 

“ The mail Service in this part of the country 
is pretty sketchy in the winter time. I guess the 
letter got lost. Anyway, you’re here. I did not 
think you could make it before to-morrow, so 
I didn’t come down to the Station.” 

“ I can explain that. I got so anxious to 
hear from you that I came into Taney to find 
out anything I could. Naturally, as I was there 
when your wire came, I could get off at once* 
It saved a whole day and brought me here on 
Christmas Day, a little late — but still in time 
to say ‘ Merry Christmas ! ^ ” 


CAMP TWENTY-NINE 


97 


^‘And it's some glad I am to see you!” 
exclaimed the man. “Fd have sent for you 
before but there did not seem to be any reason 
for it.” 

“ Did — did you go to Chicago ? asked Jerry, 
who could wait no longer in his anxiety to learn 
any possible developments. 

“ IVe got a disappointment for you about 
that,” returned O’Day simply. “ My people 
there wrote me that the clue they thought they 
had was quite worthless and there was no use 
whatever in my coming on — yet,’^ he ended 
hopefully. 

“ Then they have not given it up as a bad 
job?” 

Not so’s you could notice it. I won’t let 
’em. We’ll get to the bottom of that thing sooner 
or later, you can just bet your hat. Don’t get 
discouraged for a minute ! ” 

Well, then, what did you do after you left 
Taney? ” 

I drifted up here over the line and took a 
look at that bunch of soft wood timber I told you 
I had in mind. But I couldn’t see where there 
was much chance for a quick turn over there, so 


98 JERRY KING 

I moseyed around until I heard of this chance. 
I happened to run into Thomas ” 

“Thomas?” interrupted the boy, but before 
he could go on with his thought, O’Day had 
continued : 

“Yes, did you see him at Pentico? Fact is, 
he put me onto this job, where I expect we’ll 
coin a barrel of money. Decent of him too, 
for the last time we met we had a fuss and I 
got the better of him. Cattle deal it was. I 
thought he was sore enough to hate me for life. 
Glad I was mistaken.” 

For a minute, Jerry was about to teil Link 
frankly what sort of an impression the man 
Thomas had made on him, but refrained when 
he thought it over. Surely O’Day must be a 
good judge of men and if he thought Thomas 
had recovered from his grouch, probably 
Thomas had. Besides, he had nothing to say 
of the man except to express an unexplain- 
able dislike and distrust. He feit he had better 
wait until he bad something really definite to 
show that Thomas still nursed his resentment. 
Therefore, all he said was “Fine! Teil me 
about it.” 


CAMP TWENTY-NINE 


99 


O’Day lighted his pipe before answering. 
Then as he blew out a great cloud of smoke, he 
said: 

“ It"s great, kid, to have you here, if only 
because I now have someone to spül all my plans 
to. I don’t like to have things bottled up inside 
— they bother me. So you’ll have to be the 
goat, whether you want to or not.” 

“ Shoot, Link, Pm only glad you want to teil 
me things.” 

“ All right, then. Here’s the way of it. Fve 
never cared much about money beyond having 
enough from day to day and I always managed 
to get that if not much more. Now that Fve 
sort of adopted you as a brother, I realize that 
I need a lot more — you might like to go to 
College perhaps.” 

For a moment Jerry did not know what to 
say. He had not imagined that this new venture 
of the man’s had anything to do with him or 
that the bond of possible brotherhood between 
them meant so much to O’Day. But he knew 
that if he did not take the Suggestion in the 
way Link had made it, he would hurt the man 
terribly. 


100 JERRY KING 

“ I would like it a lot,” he said, but it seems 
to me I ought to earn my way ” 

“ You will, don’t worry about that,” was the 
rejoinder. ‘‘But I said that only to show you 
why I feit it was time I was doing something 
that would bring in a really worth-while reward. 
You can get it in lumbering if you watch sharp. 
I’m sure I’ll get it here. Thomas seems to think 
so, anyway.” 

“ If it’s so good, why didn’t he hang on to 
it for himself. Link?” Jerry could not help 
but ask. 

“ Oh, he will get his all right. He says his 
firm, Thomas and Olsen, own a whole heap of 
timber rights up here and they do a lot of cut- 
ting themselves, but they can’t do it all. So 
they give out contracts for certain tracts to 
people like me. I undertake to cut and deliver 
a certain number of feet at their mill and they 
agree to pay a certain price for it there. I, 
of course, have to finance the expense until I 
can begin to deliver the logs, but that is the 
reason I get the chance.” 

But again Jerry had a question to ask. 

“Why, then, do you think that Mr. Thomas 


CAMP TWENTY-NINE 101 

is giving you such a good deal if it is a usual 
thing? ” 

Just because this tract is so near the railroad 
and from the reports and estimates it’s such a 
dose stand of timber. The hauling will be little 

and ” but Link O’Day broke off and looked 

at the boy. Then he said, “ But what’s eating 
you about Thomas, Jerry? You seem to be as 
suspicious of him as of a Mexican.” 

“ Oh, nothing,” returned Jerry. “ I was just 
trying to understand as clearly as I could. Go 
ahead.” 

“ I thought you had something against 
Thomas. He’s forgotten that old mess just as 
I have,” laughed O’Day, relieved. The way 
of it was this: Thomas was planning to handle 
this tract himself, but when he found I was 
looking for something he decided to let me have 
a whack at it. Bully good of him, I thought 
it, and I did not want to let him do it until he 
told me that really it would be a help because 
he had so many camps under his own direction. 
But he said this was the best of the lot and 
when I looked at it I found it mighty good. 
I had just enough money to see it through, so 


102 


JERRY KING 

I signed up. And,” he paused and looked at the 
boy with twinkling eyes, “ right there and then 
was formed the firm of O’Day and King, Lum- 
bering Contractors ! ” 

''You don’t mean that ” stammered the 

surprised Jerry. 

“ Yes, I mean that you are a one-quarter Part- 
ner in this enterprise and I expect you to earn 
every cent of your share ! ” 

Jerry was overwhelmed at this unexpected 
development. 

^‘You ought not to have done that. Link,” 
he protested. ** I can’t possibly be of that much 
use to you. I’m only a kid ” 

“Don’t say another word!” commanded the 
man. “ It’s my Christmas gift to you and you 
mustn’t look gift horses in the mouth. I’ll let 
you be grateful and all that, but remember that 
while you are a partner I’m still boss and what 
I say goes ! ” 

And with this he clapped Jerry on the back, 
as the boy stammered his thanks, and began to 
talk of what would be Jerry’s duties. 

“First of all you’re to be the scaler and, 
secondly, keeper of the van ” 


CAMP TWENTY-NINE 


103 


‘‘ What’s that ? ” asked the boy. 

It’s the name they have in the woods for 
the commissary störe where the men get the 
little things they need. Each camp has one. 
You’Il be expected to keep all the accounts there 
and watch the payroll. You’ll be an important 
enough person, all right.” 

“ I sure hope Pli make good,” said Jerry, 
steadily. ^^I’m going to try hard enough.” 

“There’s no doubt of that,” was the hearty 
comment. But Fd better show you where 
you’re to bunk. It’s getting late.” 

Do I go back to the bunk house ? I thought 
maybe ” 

'' No, you’ll have to stick by the van. All the 
money is kept there and you’ll have to be the 
watchdog. You’ll see enough of the men before 
you get through. Come on, now; we work 
to-morrow, so you’ll need some sleep.” 

They had talked so long that all the lights in 
the bunk house had been put out. The moon 
had gone below the horizon and the light from 
the lantern carried by O’Day seemed to pierce 
the darkness with great difficulty. A few steps 
carried them to a little shack which stood apart 


104 


JERRY KING 

from the bunk house. O’Day unlocked the door. 
The yellow light showed a rough counter behind 
which were shelves piled with tobacco and 
canned goods. Blanket coats hung from hooks 
and a pungent smell of cheese filled the air. 

“A regulär little department störe!*’ said 
Link. 

Jerry laughed as he followed O’Day into the 
adjoining room, which was fitted with a bunk. 

I haven’t got a bed, either,” explained the 
man. And for a good reason.” 

“Why?” 

A bunk’s a whole lot warmer. Well, Jerry, 
this is your home for the winter, such as it is.” 

It’s fine,” said the boy, “ fine ! And — and. 
Link, I want to thank you for all you’ve done 
for me — and for my Christmas present. I — I 
haven’t got anything for you. I left in such a 
hurry ” 

You brought me the best present you could 
when you brought yourself here! Good night,” 
and he left the room before Jerry could come 
back at him. 


CHAPTER IX 


A NARROW ESCAPE 

When Jerry woke up next morning the sun 
was high. He jumped out of bed with the 
terrible conviction that he had overslept and 
that in all probability his new world had gone 
about its business without regard to him. He 
slid into his clothes and went out, to find that 
the camp was indeed deserted. From the forest 
came the sound of axes mixed with the shouts 
of the teamsters, and from the shack in which 
Link O’Day had his office groaned a wheezy 
accordion. 

He went over and found that the accordion 
player was the cook, who had left the breakfast 
things in disorder on the long mess table while 
he perfected a difficult passage on his instrument. 

When Jerry came in he stopped the mournful 
dirge that was wheezing from under his fingers 
and looked up. 


105 


106 JERRY KING 

So ye got slep’ out, did ye? And gettin’ 
a mite peckish, ye came aroun’ to see what ol’ 
Penny can do for ye. Well, I reckin I can give 
ye a bite. Boss said for to let ye sleep tili ye 
got ready to get up, so I saved ye a snack.” 

And what a snack it was ! Great soda biscuits 
light as a feather; cofifee out of a tin cup that 
seemed to Jerry to be as big as a pail; hunks 
of bacon — it was a f east. 

After he had put away all that he could hold 
he went in search of Link O’Day. The office 
failed to reveal him, so Jerry went out into the 
woods in the direction from which he heard the 
noises of activity. The first men he chanced to 
come upon were Pierre, his fellow traveler of 
the night before, and a big husky Swede called 
Nils. 

They were swinging their double-bitted axes 
into the trunk of a great tree fully three feet 
in diameter. It was poetry of motion with an 
accompaniment of music, for the ‘‘ tang ** as the 
blade bit into the wood echoed in varying clear 
notes. Jerry, not wishing to interrupt, stopped 
at a distance to watch the process. When the 
Chip had been neatly completed, the men picked 


A NARROW ESCAPE 107 

Up the long cross-cut saw and set it in motion 
against the wood. 

“Whez-zing, zing-whez,” it sang. Then, as 
the flashing band of Steel disappeared into the 
trunk, Pierre signaled a stop and put a wedge 
into the crack so that the weight of the tree 
could not bear on the saw and stop its progress. 
Again the song of the flying teeth and the Spurts 
of dust until some Symptom told the men they 
had done enough. The saw was pulled clear; 
then, just as Pierre stepped forward and drove 
home the wedge already set, he caught sight of 
Jerry King, who, fascinated, was watching the 
Operation. 

The boy did not realize that he was Standing 
directly in the line where the tree was destined 
to fall, but the Frenchman knew it. Already 
the Cracking warned him that the mighty top 
of the tree was quivering, hesitating before the 
sad, glorious rush that would mark its end. 

The little Frenchman did not hesitate. 
Woodsmen must act quickly, even if their 
thoughts lag behind. Possibly it was just instinct 
that told Pierre it would be useless to call a 
warning to Jerry, that the boy would probably 


108 JERRY KING 

run in the wrong direction if his legs were equal 
to carrying him at all. So, as if shot from a 
gun, he leaped for the boy, heedless of the shout 
of warning from Nils. 

As he ran, his eye took in the lay of the 
ground. Just a Step or two behind the spot 
Jerry was Standing was a sharp declivity, which 
to an unaccustomed eye would have meant 
nothing, for it was filled with drifted snow. 
Pierre decided to take the only chance that was 
left him, for he realized that the tree was 
Corning down and coming down fast. 

He hit the boy as a full-back hits a runner 
when his goal line is threatened, and the impetus 
was sufficient to roll them both over the little 
cliff into the soft snow of the declivity. 

“Down! Down!” screeched the little man, 
burrowing his way into the snow. “ Close to 
cliff ” 

Jerry was too dazed for anything but obedi- 
ence. An instant later, it seemed as if the world 
had dropped on them, shutting out the day and 
the air. 

It was hard to teil whether one was alive or 
not, so stunning had been the shock. But a 


A NARROW ESCAPE 109 

moment later Jerry feit a hand touch his face. 
You all right, my brave? ” 

“ I g-guess so,” was the uncertain answer. 
“I can’t move to find out — but you?” 

“ My arm, it’s hurt some, I think, but the 
good God has let us live — they come now and 
get US, I think.” 

So it was. Nils had lifted up his voice 
when he saw the great tree apparently crash 
down on top of his partner and the new boy, 
and a dozen flying axes were chopping away at 
the mass of branches that formed their prison. 
But it was evident the rescuers did not believe 
it possible that anyone could still be alive. 

“Too bad,” mourned a voice from outside. 
“ That Pierre Lavin, he was a pretty good 
sort o’ Canuck, even if I could pull the saw on 
him ” 

“ Liar, liar ! ” was the unexpected comment 
from somewhere in the mass of branches. 
“ Hurry up, let us out, and Pli show that 
Canaille of an Irishman ’bout pulling a saw! 
Bah!” 

This was evidence to prove that Pierre was 
not so crushed that he had no further interest 


110 JERRY KING 

in the game of strength which had as its object 
the tiring out of one man by bis partner. A 
challenge would be given and the contestants 
would each take a handle of the great cross-cut 
saw and attack a big tree. The man who could 
not keep up the pace was the loser. They 
called it “ pulling the saw,” probably because 
the tired loser would let the other drag the saw 
out of his grasp. 

The axemen worked the faster when they 
heard Pierre’s defiance. When they learned 
that Jerry too was still in the land of living, 
they cheered. 

After they had cleared away the litter to a 
point where they could see the prisoners, they 
exclaimed at the narrowness of the escape. The 
edge of the little cliff which formed the declivity 
had received the blow of the great tree trunk 
and the declivity itself had proven to be a cave 
of safety. The wonderful part was that not one 
of the myriad branches had happened to impale 
them. As it was, a branch had plunged into the 
earth between Pierre’s body and arm. It had 
grazed the arm as it came and accounted for the 
only injury received by either. 


A NARROW ESCAPE 


111 


At last they were free. Jerry King started 
to thank the Frenchman for saving bis life and 
was amazed to be interrupted by him and sub- 
jected to the worst sort of a tongue lashing. 

“ That’s all right ! I don’t want for that you 
should say, ‘ Thank you, M’sieu Lavin.* I want 
for that you not be such big fool. You learn 
something ’bout woods, maybe, in the big book 
at the school, hein? That do you no good. You 
first learn keep out of way ! ” 

The other men laughed, and the fiery little 
Canuck turned on them: 

‘‘ Shut Up your laugh, great types of pigs ! ” 
he cried. “ I try to teil this new fellow some 
sense and you laugh ! Go back to work, loafers, 
the show is finish ! ” 

Jerry was surprised at this attitude of 
Pierre’s, but as the days passed he realized it 
was done only because the little man did not 
want to be thanked. 

The boy came in for a good deal of joshing 
about being a tenderfoot. He got it from every- 
body, including Link O’Day. But things like 
this always pass quickly from the minds of such 
men as these woodsmen and Jerry helped the 


112 JERRY KING 

forgetting by being so pleasant about being 
laughed at and so genuinely anxious to learn 
the things the men could teach him. 

Strangely, or naturally, just as you prefer, it 
was Pierre Lavin who became the boy’s best 
friend and teacher. Always he would grumble 
about it and complain that a man was too busy 
to bother with a kid and a fool to boot, but 
always he would give the Information asked for 
and more besides. In reality, Pierre Lavin was 
flattered, and, furthermore, he somehow feit 
that since he had saved the boy’s life, it was 
his duty to see that Jerry became a good 
woodsman. 

The scaling was easy and it took only com- 
mon intelligence to run the camp accounts and 
the van. What Pierre taught Jerry was the 
actual processes of getting the logs out of the 
woods. 

Jerry learned that a pair of Cutters like Pierre 
and Nils were supposed to cut enough Standing 
timber to keep a team busy, one horse of which 
would snake out the logs to the edge of the 
permanent logging road. Here the other horse 
would, with the assistance of the cant hook or 


A NARROW ESCAPE 


113 


peavey men, pull the logs up on the skid pile, 
from which they could easily be loaded onto the 
great sledges which later would take them to 
the railroad. Other members of the crew were 
the swampers, whose duty it was to clear the 
travoy roads over which the logs were pulled 
to the skids. These travoy roads were merely 
trails, yet they had to be clean of any obstruc- 
tions and as level as possible under the 
conditions. 

Jerry could get through his regulär work in 
a part of the long day and he used the rest of 
it in the woods with the men. He learned the 
use of the double-bitted axe and soon could 
swing it with the same efficiency and lack of 
unnecessary effort that all the woodsmen had 
achieved. The cant hook was harder to master, 
but it came to him at last. By being with the 
men he learned countless little tricks of woods- 
manship that were to prove invaluable to him 
later on. 

There was one thing which interested him 
greatly and about which he feit he had some 
knowledge. That was the System of permanent 
sied roads which would be used after the logs 


114 JERRY KING 

were cut and piled along its edge. Over it the 
logs would be hauled to the railroad. The 
experience he had had with the Forestry Service 
had taught him of how much importance was 
the proper planning of these roads. Every 
additional foot the logs had to be moved cost 
money and every unnecessary grade they had 
to climb was expensive. 

The Principal road had been built by the 
Thomas and Olsen Company when they had 
planned to cut this tract themselves. This had 
been necessary, as the foundation of the road 
should be laid whenever possible before the snow 
came. Bridges had to be built and where the 
bottom was swampy, sapling poles cut and laid 
crosswise. These were called corduroys. 

As far as this road went, Jerry had to admit 
that it was well planned and executed, ,but he 
soon saw that it was not going to be sufficient 
to take care of the tract O’Day was planning to 
cut. Unless more main road was built, the dis- 
tance the logs would have to be dragged over 
the travoy roads was too great for profit. 

He put this view of the matter up to O’Day. 
The man was busy and although he seemed to 


A NARROW ESCAPE 


115 


be listening attentively, bis thoughts were on 
the job he had just left. He said he’d look into 
it, but by the way he said it Jerry realized that 
Link thought him theorizing. 

When after a few days O’Day had not spoken 
further regarding it, Jerry mentioned it once 
more, but with no better result. Jerry was a 
little hurt and let the matter drop, but not 
before he had spent a few days in tramping 
over the uncut sections and planning where a 
road might go if it was needed. 


CHAPTER X 


THE NEWCOMER 

One morning, when Jerry King had totaled 
Up in the office the scaling of the timber cut 
the previous day, he came across a folded paper 
which had become mixed with his reports. 
Smoothing it out, he saw that it was the 
contract between O’Day and Thomas. 

He Started to fold it up without reading it 
and then realized that since Link had made him 
a Partner he had a right to know what they 
were obligated to. Having eased his conscience, 
he settled down to try to understand the 
document. 

It was short and at first reading it seemed 
quite simple and harmless. So Thomas was 
square and aboveboard in spite of his suspicions ! 
Then, as he thought of Thomas the queer dis- 
trustful feeling he had from the first, deepened, 
so he read the contract again and as he did, his 
116 


THE NEWCOMER 


117 


puzzlement grew. Everything seemed in order; 
the price of five dollars per thousand feet, mer- 
chantable scale at the mill, seemed fair — almost 
generous, for he understood that few contracts 
were given like this for more than four dollars 
per thousand. There was one clause over which 
he hesitated, but he could not pick any real trou- 
ble with it. This was to the effect that any tim- 
ber which O’Day could not cut or deliver to the 
mill would again become the property of Thomas 
and Olsen. As the timber was theirs in the first 
place, it seemed only fair that such as remained 
after O’Day had finished should go back to 
them. Jerry passed this but it vaguely troubled 
him. 

At length he was forced to give up. As far 
as he could see, the contract was above question. 
Yet in spite of it, the distrust of Thomas and 
all his works would not down. He folded the 
paper, laid it aside to give back to O’Day, and 
Started out with his scaling rod and tablets toi 
check Up the day’s cut. 

Before he could cross the threshold, O’Day 
stepped in, a smile on his face. 

‘^Things are going great! Pierre Lavin’s 


118 JERRY KING 

crew have cut halfway through Thirty-three ! ” 

“ Yes, they started in last night. Fast 
working bunch.’’ 

“I wish all of ’em were as fast, but then 
weVe sure got a fine loyal crew. They all seem 
to be working their heads off for me. I haven’t 
any kick coming if some of ’em are a little 
slower than others. But I’m keeping you — 
where are you bound?” 

‘‘For the skids. I have to Start scaling early 
to get it all done before chuck time, since 
they’ve been rolling ’em down so fast. But just 
a minute before I go. Here’s that contract of 
yours — it got scrambled up with my papers 
somehow.” 

“ I wondered where it was, although I guess 
I know it by heart,” replied O’Day. “ Did you 
read it? I hope so. I want you to know what 
sort of a deal we’re tackling.” 

“ Yes, I did read it.” 

“ Pretty fair sort of an arrangement, I think. 
What’s your notion?” 

“ I guess it doesn’t give us the rotten end of 
the stick, but, of course, I don’t know much 
about it.” 


THE NEWCOMER 


119 


“ That’s the way I feit, but there’s one thing 
which could be dangerous — that Provision that 
■we have got to deliver a minimum of four 
million feet.’' 

“ I didn’t get that ! ’’ exclaimed the boy. 
“ What happens if we don’t?” 

Contract’s off and we get nothing for our 
trouble.” 

“But what’s the idea?” 

“ Thomas has to have some sort of guarantee 
that we are going to take out most of the timber 
that’s here. It would not pay to let part of this 
tract wait over until next year and put in 
another crew for just a few weeks’ work. But 
it’s nothing to worry about, for we’ve got about 
two million on the skids now if your figures are 
right. We’ve got lots of time for the other two 
million.” 

“Yes, that’s so,” said the boy slowly, for he 
realized that the last two million might come a 
lot harder than the first two. Link O’Day did 
not seem to be aware that a serious delay would 
occur when part of the men would have to be 
taken off cutting and put on the construction of 
the extra sledge road. 


120 


JERRY KING 

O’Day did not notice the boy's hesitation and 
went on to talk of some of the details of the 
work. Jerry, after a minute or so, escaped to 
his scaling just a little worried. His Intuition 
made him feel that something was not just as it 
ought to be, but it was impossible to put his 
finger on the wrong spot. For a moment he 
had thought that the Provision in the contract 
that O’Day had told him about was the catch, 
but O’Day had seemed sure that there would 
be no difficulty in lumbering the necessary 
number of feet. 

When he got to the first skidway, he forgot 
his perplexities in the work at hand. 

The cant hook men had piled the logs so that 
it was comparatively easy for him to get at the 
butts of each of the logs. Across these he laid 
his slender rule and marked the number of board 
feet in each on his tablets. After estimating 
each log he took a short hammer from his beit 
and with a sharp blow left an Impression of the 
letter “ O ” on the log. This was to show that 
the log had been scaled and, when it got to the 
mill, told what camp it had come from. 

It was lively work, for it meant scrambling 


THE NEWCOMER 


121 


Up and over the great piles of logs and dodging 
the new ones as they arrived and were rolled 
and pried into their appointed places. Then, as 
soon as one skidway was finished, he moved on 
to another until he was done with the last one 
just before the cook’s welcome shout told that 
lunch was ready. 

After chuck, since he had finished up his office 
work in the morning, there was nothing press- 
ing he had to do, and the fancy struck him to 
go hunting. The snow was crossed by countless 
tracks of the different woods animals and often 
he had seen the flash of the white flag of a deer 
who had ventured in too dose to the cutters. 

O’Day had a rifle which he had told Jerry he 
could use when he wanted, but to-day was the 
first time he had taken advantage of the offer. 
Stuffing a few Cartridges in his pocket, he 
Started off. 

A few rods from camp he came on the fresh 
tracks of a deer that apparently had come that 
far and turned hurriedly, frightened probably 
at some chance sight of a man. Jerry had no 
real idea that he would get a shot at that par- 
ticular deer, but at least if he followed the trail 


122 JERRY KING 

it would give him some definite direction in 
which to go. There was no telling what sort 
of game he would flush. 

But to-day he was not even to have a glimpse 
of a deer, for not long after he came upon 
bigger game. The deer tracks had taken him 
in the general direction of the railroad and at 
one place veered very dose to the road leading 
from it to camp. It was a surprising thing to 
see the figure of a man making his way along 
the road in the direction of Twenty-nine. Jerry 
could remember no member of the crew who 
had gone outside and who would be coming back 
now. It must be a stranger. His curiosity was 
aroused and, abandoning his rather aimless 
Chase, he stepped out towards the logging road 
and hailed the plodding wayfarer. 

Imagine his surprise when the figure turned 
at his call and proved to be Randolph Blair. 

It was no less a surprise, evidently, for Blair. 

“You — you!” he stammered. ‘‘What are 
you doing here?” 

“ Working,” was Jerry’s short reply, as he 
tried to think of some reason why the young 
fellow who had left the forestry outfit under 


THE NEWCOMER 


123 


such a cloud should turn up here on his way 
to O’Day’s camp. For the road he was follow- 
ing went nowheres eise. 

With O’Day? » 

‘‘Yes. But what brings you here?” Jerry 
could not keep from his tone something of the 
hostility he had had for the newcomer when 
they last met. Blair feit it and his answer was 
a little shamefaced. 

I wanted a job — any sort of a job that 
would feed me. I — I’m ” 

‘‘Hungry?” Jerry interrupted incredulously. 

“Yes,” confessed the other. ''I got fired 
from Thomas’ camp at Fourteen and nobody 
eise will take me on; blacklisted me, I guess. I 
haven’t found a job or much food since. At 
last I ate what little pride I had left and came 
here. O’Day knew me, at least.” 

“ You had the nerve to strike him for a job 
after the things you said about him?” chal- 
lenged young King, disgusted. 

“I — I thought that in all probability no one 
would teil O’Day what we fought over or why 
I had to leave. But I might just as well turn 
around and go back now that you are here. It’s 


124 JERRY KING 

all off, I gness.” And, as if there was nothing 
more to say, he turned and started back the way 
he had come. 

Jerry stood amazed at what he had heard. It 
was incredible to him that Blair would have had 
the cheek to believe that the bunch on reconnais- 
sance would have kept quiet about his insinua- 
tions against O’Day, just to save Link from 
annoyance. That he would gamble on his belief 
being true to the extent of hitting O’Day for a 
Job, was so nervy that a spark of admiration 
was lit in Jerry’s breast. There was something 
so dejected about the figure going down the road 
that Jerry was touched in spite of himself. 

“ Wait a minute! ” he called. I can’t let you 
go hungry,” and started off to meet Blair, who 
had turned at his shout. He fumbled in his 
pocket and brought out a package of lunch 
which he had brought with him in case supper 
time should seem too far off. 

Blair almost snatched the food from his hands 
and ate wolfishly without saying a word. When 
he had finished he stood up and eyed Jerry a 
little appealingly. 

“I guess you — you won’t believe it, but — 


THE NEWCOMER 


125 


but I’m really very grateful — I — I thank you/' 
and off he started again. 

*‘Don’t go,” said Jerry, “until you teil me 
what youVe been up against. Fd like to hear.” 

‘‘All right,” returned the other with a short 
laugh. “ But it will be poor pay for the grub, 
I warn you.” He hesitated and then went on: 

“ When Don Mackenzie shoved me out of the 
Forestry Service, I went back home, but the 
governor was fed up with me — said Fd been 
too much trouble to him already and that it was 
up to me to rustle for myself. Handed me a 
few dollars and said kindly but finally that home 
was no place for me until I could come back 
having made good. I saw that the old man was 
in earnest this time, so I drifted. He’d often 
threatened to kick me out but had never quite 
made good on it. Forestry was all I knew any- 
thing about, except a bunch of useless junk I’d 
picked up in College, so I came up to Canada 
on a steam schooner and got a job in a big 
sawmill.” 

“ Why did you leave? ” interjected Jerry. 

“ Got fresh again, I guess. Somehow I al- 
ways lose my job either because Fm too fresh 


126 JERRY KING 

or too lazy. I guess rm just plain worthless. 
Anyway, I fooled around from place to place 
and finally landed with Thomas and Olsen. 
After a little they fired me too and — and here 
I am. Now Vm going away again and that’s 
all.” 

Jerry had been thinking pretty hard as the 
Story was told and at its end he came to a 
decision. 

‘‘Why go away? Why not see what Mr. 
O’Day will do for you? ” 

“You mean — you mean hit him for a job? 
Now that I find you here? Fd be crazy! ” 
Why?” 

“’Cause you would teil him what sort of no 
account fool I am. What chance would I 
have? ” 

“But suppose I don’t teil him?” 

“ You ought to.” 

** Perhaps. But IVe got a hunch that if you 
can see for yourself that you’ve been such a 
crazy galoot you may try to do differently. Am 
I right?” 

Blair looked at the boy with amazement. 
Here was something he could not understand. 


THE NEWCOMER 


127 


He knew that if he had been in Jerry’s shoes 
he would never have been able to forego his 
revenge. Particularly such an easy revenge. 
He was genuinely touched but only for a mo- 
ment. In that moment he came near blurting 
out what really was behind his coming, But 
the selfishness and hardness that he had accu- 
mulated was too strong for the impulse of 
honesty. 

^‘Your hunch is correct,” was what he said. 
“ I’m through with that other stuff. If only 
you’ll give me the chance, Fll prove it.” 

The answer somehow rang rather disappoint- 
ingly in Jerry’s ears, although the words were 
right. For a flashing second he wondered 
whether he had acted wisely; whether it had 
not been better to let Ran Blair work out his 
own Salvation in other scenes. But he threw off 
this feeling as the two walked back to camp to 
hunt Up Link O’Day, for Blair talked so well 
and seemed so much in earnest. 

As it happened, the camp needed a chore boy 
whose duties were many and arduous. It was 
his job to be the first up to light the fires and 
call the men. He helped the cook and every- 


128 JERRY KING 

body eise. When O’Day offered Blair this job 
and it was accepted almost with eagerness, Jerry 
feit better. If Ran was willing to take the 
humblest job around the place and could make 
good at it, there certainly was hope for him. 


CHAPTER XI 


THE STORM GATHERS 

The good luck that had been with O’Day’s 
undertaking seemed somehow to fade away with 
the Corning of the new chore boy. Up to that 
time everything apparently had conspired to 
make the job a success. The weather had stayed 
clear and cold; there had been no accidents; the 
men had been contented and had put their hearts 
into the work. Consequently the logs seemed to 
tumble out of the woods as if by magic and the 
piles on the skidways grow gigantic overnight. 

But a change came and the smoothly oiled 
machine creaked and groaned. First, a heavy 
snowstorm covered the travoy roads. The snow 
did not pack easily and both men and horses 
floundered knee-deep in it. Then a driver feil 
sick and the new driver, inexperienced, let a 
great hemlock fall on his team. So crushed 
were they that it was only kindness to put them 
out of their agony. 


129 


130 JERRY KING 

Their loss was bad enough in the money it 
cost, but it also meant that one whole gang of 
Cutters had to do other work until a new team 
could be found — and trained teams are not to 
be had easily in the midst of the lumbering sea- 
son. It cost O’Day two weeks and a larger sum 
of money than he liked to think about to replace 
them. 

Then something came over the men them- 
selves to turn them from a happy, singing crowd 
into a sullen bunch, inclined to grumble over 
minor troubles. 

One day, after this had gone on for some 
time, Jerry King came back from his scaling, 
discouraged with the poor total his tablets 
showed. He found Link waiting for him. 
There was no smile on his face as he asked 
Jerry about the total. 

“ Rotten,” replied the boy, “ simply rotten 
when you think what that bunch can do ! ” 

“ I know it,” said O’Day, “ and the worst of 
it is I can’t find out what’s wrong. I go out 
with ’em just as much and drive ’em just 
as hard, but it doesn’t do any good. Pierre and 
Nils seem to keep up the pace, but the rest of 


THE STORM GATHERS 


131 


them — I guess theyVe caught the hookworm! 
It’s getting serious, Jerry. If we keep on being 
delayed like this we'll have to do some tall 
scratching to get in that four million. Spring's 
on its way and weVe got to be through cutting 
before the thaw.” 

“ I know it,” said Jerry, “but don’t worry. It 
will work out all right. IVe — I’ve got a Sug- 
gestion to make,” he hesitated to see how O’Day 
would take it, “ that is, if you’d like to hear it” 

“ Siu-e — shoot,” was the hearty answer. 

“ Why not stop cutting for a week or so and 
throw a permanent road up into Forty-tw'o? 
The stuff they’re cutting now is scattered and 
it’s a long travoy besides.” 

The worried man did not remember that this 
was the thing that had been suggested to him 
several times before. Jerry did not remind him 
of it 

“You think it would pay for the delay? It 
means no logs out for a week.” 

“ Of coimse it’s a chance, but I think weVe 
got to take it It won*t take so long to build 
that road, because I’ve laid out where it can go. 
There’s a stream bed that will take us most of 


132 JERRY KING 

the way and that means we won't have to dodge 
tree stumps ! ” 

** Good boy ! ” cried O’Day, much relieved. 
“ Come along and show me what youVe planned 
out. I’ll set the crew at it first thing in the 
morning. Perhaps a little road-making will give 
them back some pep for their own job.” 

When O’Day had looked over the road Jerry 
had marked by stakes he was enthusiastic, and 
work on it started as he had promised. Jerry 
feit that he had scored a victory for the methods 
of the Forestry Service, for without that train- 
ing he would never have seen the necessity of 
his Suggestion. 

Düring this time Ran Blair had done the work 
set for him without complaining, but he did not 
seem to make friends with any of the men. 
Once or twice Jerry tried to show that he was 
willing to forget the past, but Blair evidently 
did not feel at ease, so Jerry left him alone. 

There was some grumbling amongst the men 
when they were set on the road work, but O’Day 
would take no back-talk and soon all was going 
smoothly. The snow had not packed, so the first 
Operation was comparatively easy. It consisted 


THE STORM GATHERS 


133 


of plowing the snow with great V-shaped sledges 
piled high with rocks. This forced the snow to 
the sides and left clear the hard snow or ice 
underneath. Then, wherever there seemed the 
slightest danger of the foundation being weak, 
sapling poles were laid crosswise to form the 
corduroy bottom. 

After the foundation was clear, the great 
Sprinkler sledge was drawn back and forth over 
the surface. The water froze almost as soon 
as it reached the air and formed the hard glassy 
surface of the road. 

When this was finished and the men went 
back to work, there seemed to be a better spirit 
present. The crews worked faster and, the new 
part of the tract being more thickly grown, 
more logs came to the skidways. 

But this did not last long. Again there was 
grumbling and dissatisfaction amongst the men. 
Either it was too cold to work, or the food was 
rotten, or any of a thousand things that ordi- 
narily would not have bothered them in the 
least. 

Jerry could see that Link O’Day was becom- 
ing really worried. He would spent long hours 


134 JERRY KING 

going over the accounts. Particularly he would 
study the scaling reports and try to make them 
teil him that all was well. 

“ If only winter won’t break early,” he would 
cry to Jerry, “ we’ll come out in great shape. 
But if it does ” 

At these times the boy would try to hearten 
Up his friend, but it was too great a task. 
O’Day feit the responsibility he had taken on 
keenly and it would be a great calamity for him 
if he should fail. Never before had he cared 
really what would be the outcome of anything 
he had attempted. Perhaps this was why they 
had usually come out well. 

Daily, in spite of all the driving and pushing 
of the men, the total of the cut grew less and 
less. The grumbling, too, became more and 
more of a problem. The men complained of 
everything. It seemed to Jerry as if they were 
only seeking something over which they could 
make serious trouble. All this affected the work 
terribly. The logs came to the skidways less 
and less often. 

The funny part of it all was that neither 
O’Day nor Jerry could find the slightest reason 


THE STORM GATHERS 


135 


or excuse for the men’s behavior. It certainly 
was not to their advantage to get fired at this 
time of the year, especially as they would each 
earn a substantial bonus if they stuck through 
to the end. The wages were as good as or bet- 
ter than those to be had at any other camp and 
old Penny’s food was famous throughout the 
woods. 

“ Things are bad enough without this ! ” ex- 
claimed Link O’Day after running through one 
of the infrequent mails that came to the camp. 
“ I should have had a notice to-day that Thad 
Holman had deposited payroll money in Pentico 
for US. It’s not here.” 

This was a new source of worry. 

“ Mr. Holman is in on this with us? ” 

‘‘ Not exactly. I had a few head of cattle on 
his ränge and I told him to seil them for me. I 
can’t imagine what’s happened.” 

“ Can’t you telegraph him? ” 

“ ril try that and I sure hope Pli get an 
answer, for it would be bad stuff if I had to 
go outside to rustle up some cash. Particularly 
right now when things are in such rotten shape 
here in camp. It’s tough luck all right.” 


136 JERRY KING 

“But we’ll beat out old Mister Tough Luck 
at that,” were Jerry’s encouraging words, al- 
though he was far from feeling them. “ You 
won’t have to go away, I know.” 

“ If I do, it will mean a couple of weeks of 
hard work for you.'* 

‘‘Forme? Why?’’ 

“ You’ll have to boss the job besides attending 
to your own work.” 

“ Do you — you think I can do it? ” 

“You’ll have to. And as far as results go, 
you could hardly do worse than I have in the 
last month. But, don’t worry about it. Per- 
haps Thad will come to life and I won’t have 
to go. I’ll wait until the next mail anyway, 
but if I don’t hear then, it’s up to me to rustle 
for dough.” 

Somehow, during the few days that elapsed 
before the next mail would come, Jerry was 
convinced that they would have no word from 
Mr. Holman and that the job of handling the 
men was sure to fall on his shoulders. At first 
the prospect frightened him a little, it was such 
a large order. But as he got more used to the 
idea, he braced his back to it and promised him- 


THE STORM GATHERS 137 

seif that he would make good. It was up to him 
to justify his partner’s belief in him. 

He came to believe that there was a good 
Chance of his being able to get away with it. 
The men liked him, for he had never been fresh 
with them or put on any airs. Pierre Lavin 
was his friend and Nils, the Swede, was Pierre’s 
bunkie. In all probability he could count on 
these two for active help in case the rest of the 
men proved troublesome. 

This new development took the greater part 
of his thoughts. The condition of general un- 
rest in the camp had become almost a matter of 
course and Jerry puzzled over it only at odd 
moments. 

The mail was due on Monday, but it got to 
the terminal of the logging railroad Saturday 
night. O’Day was so anxious to find out what 
it had brought him that he sent Ran Blair down 
on the late afternoon train. There was just a 
possibility that he could get back on the same 
run that had brought Jerry to camp. Usually 
the mail was not distributed in time for that 
train and it waited over until Monday, unless 
somebody came in for it. 


138 JERRY KING 

So, when Blair tramped into the office late 
that night, böth Link and Jerry were waiting. 
They had been killing the long hours with talk 
of the Reclamation Service and the pleasant 
warmth of New Mexico. Now, as the messen- 
ger entered, they jumped up and O’Day grabbed 
the packet of letters with a word of thanks. As 
O’Day Started to run through the envelopes, 
Blair slipped out of the door. 

Jerry watched the expression on his friend’s 
face change from hope to worry, and then to 
desperation. 

It’s not here, son,” he said at last. “ Some- 
thing has gone wrong.” 

“ Does it mean that you’ll have to go ? ” 

*‘Just that. And quickly too. If I haven’t 
money here to meet next month’s payroll, I 
might just as well quit and say I’m licked. It 
will be Up to you to hold things down, as I told 
you. Think you can do it? ” 

He shot out the last question with the speed 
of a bullet. But Jerry was prepared for it; he 
had had almost a week to get himself together. 

Yes, sir ! If I don’t, it won’t be because I’m 
af raid to try ! ” 


THE STORM GATHERS 


139 


“ That’s the boy ! ” cried O’Day, delighted 
with the spirit Jerry had shöwn. “ You’ll do it, 
I know. And Fll get back just as quickly as I 
can. We’ll win yet! ” 

The next morning before dawn had fully 
broken, O’Day was traveling towards the rail- 
road behind the swiftest horse in camp, and 
Jerry King’s reign as boss had begun. 

The first trial of his authority probably would 
not be put to the test until the next morning, 
but already he feit the responsibility that had 
been put upon him. Therefore he went out and 
cruised the scene of the past weeks’ operations. 
He wanted to familiarize himself with every 
detail. 

This took the greater part of the day. At 
last as he was coming back to camp he heard 
the Jingle of sleigh bells and looked up to find 
coming towards him the sleigh that had taken 
Link away in the morning. 

In it was Pierre Lavin. He pulled up. 

1 thought Jim Tresco drove the boss in,” 
was Jerry’s surprised greeting. “ You went in 
last night on the shoo-fly ” 

“ Sure, that is right. But that Jim when he 


140 JERRY KING 

gets to the saloon he does not want to go away 
so soon. He gives me a dollar for to bring back 
the horse, when me, I want so much to get back 
quick I am willing to do so for nothing.” The 
Frenchman grinned broadly. 

“ But why did you want to come back? This 
is the first time you’ve been outside since 
Christmas ” 

I want to see you/* 

‘‘ Me?” 

Sure. I have something to teil you.” 

Jerry knew that it must be something of im- 
portance — probably of great importance if it 
would bring a lumberjack back to camp before 
his time of liberty was up. In a flash it came 
to him that it was about the job — that Pierre 
was a friend and loyal. 

What is it? ” he managed to say finally. 

“ That fellow Blair, he goes on shoo-fly with 
me. Boss O’Day he send him för the mail, 
hein?” 

“ Yes — yes!” 

“Well, what you think when I teil you he 
gets the mail but too he has long talk with Mr. 
Thomas? ” 


CHAPTER XII 


THE STORM BREAKS 

As soon as Pierre Lavin had put his question, 
a great many things became clear to Jerry King. 

So Thomas was behind the trouble with the 
men! Somehow, somewhere, and for some pur- 
pose, he was stirring up the discontent. 

It was easy to see for what purpose Thomas 
played the trouble-maker, for if they failed to 
deliver the minimum number of board feet, the 
amount already cut would go to him without 
cost for cutting and would more than even up 
for the loss of the lumber left Standing. 

The more he thought about it the surer he 
became that »Thomas had always had from the 
very Start this plan to cheat O’Day out of his 
earnings. In all probability he had known more 
of how the timber lay and the difficulties there 
would be in getting it out than he had seen fit 
to teil Link O’Day. It was likely, too, that he 
141 


142 


JERRY KING 

had planned on O’Day’s not doing so well as he 
had to Start with, and that he had recourse to 
sowing trouble among the men only when he 
found that there was every chance of a suc- 
cessful ending to the job. 

Ran Blair was the tool with which he had 
accomplished what he desired to do. The trouble 
had Started just after Blair had hit camp and 
had grown worse every day since he had beeh 
there. It was very simple but it was hard for 
Jerry to swallow. He did not want to believe 
that Blair was a traitor, that he had stolen into 
camp only to destroy it. If it was so, Jerry feit 
that he was to blame, for it was because he had 
kept quiet and said nothing to O’Day that the 
boss had given Blair a job. This was a small 
point, however, compared with the disappoint- 
ment he feit that Blair should have proved to be 
Thomas’ messenger. He had thought that Blair 
really was in earnest about his desire to do 
better — to make good, and what Pierre had 
learned seemed to show that it had all been 
pretense. 

•‘What do you think of that, hein?” Pierre 
urged, when Jerry remained silent. “ Maybeso 


THE STORM BREAKS 


143 


it will explain why these men ” — he emphasized 
the Word — “are such big babies and work so 
slow. Maybeso you teil Pierre what you know ?" 

The boy made a quick decision: He was 
going to trust this Canuck lumberjack. Pierre 
and his partner, Nils, the Swede, had not been 
affected by the unrest which had taken hold of 
the other men. They had worked as hard or 
even harder since things had started to go wrong 
and had taken it as a personal affront when their 
teamsters did not clear away the logs they had 
trimmed. 

‘‘ Yes, Pierre, Fm going to teil you everything 
I know and suspect. First of all, though, do 
you know that Boss O’Day will be ruined if this 
delay goes on? ” 

A nod signified that the other understood. 

‘‘ He’s a pretty good boss ? ” 

Another nod. 

Good. Then you’ll help, if you can? ” 

‘‘ Sure,” accompanied with still another nod. 

** All right, then. Here’s the way of it,” and 
Jerry outlined rapidly what were the conditions 
of the contract, what he suspected Thomas was 
up to, and the necessity he saw for some imme- 


144 JERRY KING 

diate action. When he had finished, Pierre said : 

“ Just a little, my brave, just a little. Let me 
think.” He puffed silently at his pipe. 

‘‘ First, of course, we run that type of snake, 
Blair, out of camp ” 

“ No,” cried Jerry, ‘‘ not that! ” 

“For why?” was the quiet question. 

“Then — then Thomas will know we suspect 
and will try some other way of bothering us. 
As it is, he will go on thinking we suspect 
nothing ! ” 

“You have reason, my brave. I was mis- 
taken. Blair shall stay but you must keep a 
dose eye on him. Why not make him scaler ? ” 
ThaFs a good hunch. Then he will have to 
be with me a lot of the time. But, Pierre, some- 
thing has got to be done with the men. WeVe 
just got to make them hüstle — besides, Fm 
afraid they won’t like a kid like me bossing 
them.” 

“Don*t let that make worry for you, if you 
listen to Pierre. You must not be afraid. If 
someone Start something rough you jump first. 
Never you let a big lumberjack say the first 
Word. Never give in to him or let him have 


THE STORM BREAKS 


145 


favor from you. Work him like a big horse and 
he will love you. Me, Pierre, I know what I 
say!^* 

As he was listening to this authoritative 
advice, an idea came to Jerry which seemed a 
good one and likely to fix Pierre’s loyalty to him 
with strong bands. 

I’ll remember, Pierre. The idea is if a 
husky gets gay with me I’m to wallop him with 
a peavey before saying a word to him. When 
he’s out of the hospital it will be time enough 
to argue. Is that it?” 

‘‘Absolutely!” 

*‘A11 right then, and in payment for that 
advice and all the rest of the help you have 
given me, I want you to be the foreman of the 
gang.” 

“ Me, Pierre Lavin, the foreman? What’s 
the matter? You crazy? Me, Pm just plain 
lumberjack ” 

‘‘That’s enough modesty,” laughed the boy. 
“ YouTe the foreman from now on and we’ll 
see if together we can’t drive 'em like they’ve 
never been driven before. I want to show Boss 
O’Day something by the time he gets back! 


146 JERRY KING 

Now you go on into camp and Fll come later. 
I’m Corning to the bunkhouse to-night and teil 
the bunch what I’ve decided to do and I don’t 
want them to think we cooked it up beforehand.” 

The new foreman was so overcome that he 
drove off without saying another word. He was 
pleased way down to the soles of his mucklucks. 
The boy realized this and it cheered him up, for 
he feit sure that Pierre would do miracles in 
Order to justify the trust that had been placed 
in him. 

When Jerry got back to camp he hunted up 
Blair and succeeded in talking to him without 
showing the disgust he feit. 

‘‘ Blair, I want you to take Charge of the van 
and the scaling — at least until the boss comes 
back. How about it ? ” 

The other boy stammered his acceptance and 
Jerry feit that he was confused and bothered. 
Probably this was due to the suddenness of the 
offer and the thought that the change might be 
due to his being suspected. But as it really 
meant a promotion there was no v/ay to refuse 
it and still keep up the idea that he was trying 
to make good. 


THE STORM BREAKS 


147 


‘‘All right, then, that’s settled,” Jerry said 
crisply. “ Move your stuff over to the van 
shanty and TU show you the accounts.” 

After supper the new boss waited until he 
saw a light in the van window. It was not his 
plan to have the talk with the men come off 
while Ran Blair was in the bunkhouse. He 
wanted to have them alone without being backed 
up by the fellow he was sure was the cause of 
their mutinous spirit. 

As he thought of this interview he became 
more and more convinced that it would prove 
to be a lot more important than a mere an- 
nouncement of Pierre’s having been made fore- 
man. He had an idea that it might turn out to 
be the big moment ojf the job; that on its result 
the success or failure of Link O’Day and him- 
self might hang. 

These woodsmen were like children, easily led 
by their enthusiasms. Perhaps, if he was big 
enough to swing it, he might gain their loyalty 
and undo in a few minutes all the work Blair 
had done in weeks. At least it was worth 
trying. 

Then, just as he was pulling himself together 


148 JERRY KING 

to Start on his mission, the door of tHe office 
opened without any preliminary knock. Jerry 
turned to see the form of Pierre Lavin, a look 
of anxiety on his face. 

Put out the light ! ” came the sharp appeal. 
I must not be seen in here ! ” 

The boy did as he was told and a second later 
they were in darkness. 

‘^Whatisit? What’sup?” 

‘‘ Mischief, big mischief. Those big fool men 
they think now is time for to make big trouble. 
When I get back I find everybody making big 

talk in the bunkhouse ” 

“Was Blair in it?» 

“No, but I think he had been. He^s very 
clever fellow, he don^t want to get mixed up in 
this. Me, I think ol’ Penny Start it all — but 
only after Blair Start him. What you think?” 

“ Sounds possible. They have been together 
a lot. But you haven’t told me what sort of 
trouble they are planning.” 

“ They say they do no work to-morrow. No 
boss here to make ’em, so why go out.” 

“ But then they can be kicked out of camp ! ” 
Jerry was sure that Pierre was shrugging his 



“Put out the light!” came the sharp appeal. “I must 

not be seen in here!” 




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THE STORM BREAKS 149 

Shoulders, but in the dark he could not see that 
expressive movement. 

“ Who’s going to do kicking? And what you 
gain if it is done? Where do we get more men 
to get out the logs, can you teil me that? No, 
that is no good. We must make these fools of 
men stay and moreover they must work and 
work like the devil ! ” 

YouTe right. Let me think a minute and 
see what’s to be done ” 

But before a second had passed Pierre was 
talking again. 

“ Here, Boss Jerry, is what I want to do. I 
think maybeso it will be a good plan. Nils and 
me we go and Start a roughhouse and beat up 
that camp. Maybeso they get some sense then. ” 

These savage words came out of the darkness 
so calmly and seriously that the boy knew Pierre 
meant what he said. That with Nils he would 
willingly take on the job of cleaning up the camp 
and knocking the men into a real desire to do 
their duty. 

It was a brave offer but Jerry saw that the 
odds were far too great to promise any real 
Chance for success, although at the moment he 


150 JERRY KING 

would have liked to see a few heads broken. In 
fact, he wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder 
with Pierre and Nils and help them. 

I’m sorry to disappoint you, Pierre, but 
I don’t think that will help us any. There 
are more o£ ’em over there than we could 
handle ” 

Me, I’m not so sure about that ! ” inter- 
rupted the Frenchman savagely. 

“ But I am,” Jerry countered soothingly. 
“ Thanks just the same for the offer. Now, 
here’s what I propose. Pli go over there now 
as I planned and teil ’em that you’re to be boss 
as far as they are concerned. If it’s only a boss 
they need to make them work, we’ll give ’em 
one. How about that?” 

Now it was Pierre Lavin’s turn to dissent. 

‘‘You must not go to the bunkhouse to-night! 
No! Somebody has brought in whiskey and 
they are devils! Those jacks, they will murder 
you!” 

“All the same, I am going!” the boy an- 
nounced, thrilled with the danger ahead. He 
knew that the time of his testing had come, 
that if he let the night pass without taking a 


THE STORM BREAKS 


151 


decisive step toward whipping the men into line, 
that he would be beaten. He was afraid, afraid 
to the tips of his fingers, yet a greater fear was 
on him than any physical fear could ever be. It 
was the fear that he was afraid to go! 

“ Go back, Pierre ; they must not miss you. I 
am Corning as soon as it seems safe. Go ! ” 

But before the door opened, Jerry feit the 
man’s big hand grip his shoulder until it hurt 
and heard a voice in his ear: 

‘‘You are something of a man, my brave! 
Me, Pierre Lavin, I am proud of you I ’’ 


CHAPTER XIII 


JERRY RIDES IT OUT 

The few minutes that Jerry gave Pierre to 
get back to the bunkhouse dragged like long 
hours. It was perhaps the tensest period of 
time that the boy was likely ever to put in. It 
is easy enough to jump into danger when there 
is only time to act; the hard thing is to know 
what must be faced, have the opportunity to 
think over what the results are likely to be, and 
then do what is to be done. 

That was the Job confronting Jerry. It would 
have been quite easy to have left the office and 
to have marched to the bunkhouse as soon as he 
had uttered his determination to go. Now as he 
thought it over, he knew it would be hard to 
force himself to Start. Doubts assailed him of 
his ability to handle the Situation. Rapidly he 
was being reduced to a state of funk. 

Although he knew if he started now he would 
152 


153 


JERRY RIDES IT OUT 

not be giving bis new foreman enough time to 
mingle with the crowd, the necessity of being 
up and doing or not doing at all, pushed him 
out of the Office into the moonlight. 

Now that he was on his way, courage came 
back with a rush. What he was doing was the 
only thing to be done. By going through with 
it he would prove his gratitude for the things 
Link O’Day had done for him, and his ability 
to measure up to the responsibility that had been 
put upon him. The snap in the air made his 
blood tingle in his veins and by the time he came 
to the door of the bunkhouse he was almost 
eager for what might come. 

Without hesitating, he pushed open the door, 
slammed it behind him and stepped into the 
middle of the floor. 

Remembering Pierre’s advice of always hit- 
ting first, Jerry thought it might work as well 
with words as with blows. So, before the 
surprised men could find their tongues he was 
at it. 

“ Men,” he cried, “ I’ve come over here to teil 
you who’s boss while Mr. O’Day is away. I 
am! Do you get that? I am the boss and 


154 JERRY KING 

you,” singling out Pierre, “are foreman. If 
there is anyone here who doesn’t like the 
arrangement I want to know it here and now ! ” 

Evidently the advice he had received was 
good, for during a whole minute there was no 
Comeback from the men. Out of the corner of 
his eye he saw Pierre and Nils making their 
way towards him and a thrill went through him 
when he realized that their plan was to be near 
him in case of trouble. 

The first shot having gone so well, he deter- 
mined to try and get a second one in before 
they came back at him. 

“Well, I’m sure glad my plan suits every- 
body. We’ll get along like a happy family after 
this ” 

“ We will not ! ” boomed a great voice from 
the back of the room. “ Where do you get that 
stuff anyway? Is this camp goin* to be run by 
a kid and a Canuck? ’’ 

Jerry did not wait for an answer from the 
men. He seemed to flash through ' the air, 
hurdle the bench in the center of the room, 
and catapult against the Speaker in one long 
action. His head came into contact with the 


155 


JERRY RIDES IT OUT 

man’s stomach with such force that right then 
and there that particular fight ended. It was 
big Tim Hanlon, the Stahle boss, and he had 
never been over populär, so a snicker went up 
from the rest of the crowd as he slumped to the 
floor. But what heartened Jerry more than 
anything eise was a remark he caught as he 
turned to face the room. 

The nervy little cuss ! ” someone had said 
and the boy knew that he had gained ground. 

“Has anyone eise anything to say?*’ Jerry 
asked. If the men laughed all was well, but he 
knew that if they did not and he was forced to 
try the rash act of playing Giant Killer again, 
everything was lost. He could not hope to have 
the same luck over again. It had been a rash 
Chance he’d taken but it had been the only thing 
to do at the moment. 

The men looked at him Standing so cockily in 
front of them and were amazed at his nerve. 
Then they thought of the discomforture of 
Hanlon and they began to snicker and then to 
laugh. Soon the smoky room was echoing to 
the roars of laughter that spread like a forest 
fire. 


156 JERRY KING 

He had won the first round in his fight with 
them. After this there was no longer any fear 
of their disputing his authority. But the hard- 
est part was yet to come. He had to win their 
confidence, their loyalty to the job, in order to 
put an end to the delay and discontent. 

When the laughter died down, he made his 
first try. 

“ You know you fellows will have to put up 
with me as boss for a couple of weeks/’ 

A chorus of voices assured him that he could 
be boss forever if he liked. What he had done 
was the sort of thing that appealed to the 
woodsmen’s sense of bravery and he had won 
their unfailing loyalty until he should prove 
himself unworthy of it. 

“ Well, if you all feel that way about it, I 
wish you would help me show the real boss 
when he gets back what we can do. Fd like to 
get more logs out of the woods the next two 
weeks than weVe ever got out before. Will 
you help me ? 

But there was not the same response this 
time. The men looked at each other uneasily 
and were silent. 


157 


JERRY RIDES IT OUT 

Whafs the matter? ” urged Jerry. “ There 
have been a lot of accidents and delays lately 
but ril bet we can get over them. What eise is 
bothering you ? ” 

“Why, little boss, the — the grub is — 
is ” 

“ What’s the matter with my grub? ” shrieked 
Penny. “ Td like to hear one o’ ye lumberjacks 
pass any loose talk o’ my cookin’. Where do ye 
think y’are, in the Walledorf-Astory? They’s 
lots o’ things about this camp that kin be fixed 
Up a heap better, but lay off my grub ! ” 

“ I pass you along to Penny,” laughed Jerry, 
eyeing the man who’d been unwise enough to 
draw on himself the wrath of the cook. “ If 
things aren’t right there, he’ll see to it. But, 
men, listen here, I’m going to teil you some- 
thing and I want you to understand it clearly. 
If we don’t get a million more feet out before 
the thaw, Boss O’Day goes broke! Are you 
fellows willing to let that happen? Hasn’t he 
been a good boss to you? Are you going to 
throw him down ? ” 

It was an impassioned appeal and Jerry saw 
the men were touched, but yet they kept silent. 


158 JERRY KING 

It was as if they wanted to let go a shout of 
approval and willingness to help that somehow 
stuck in their throats. Jerry feit a great lump 
rise in his throat. He had failed. He had had 
bis Chance and had lost. There was nothing 
more to do. 

In the morning the men would go to work 
but unwillingly and because they were driven. 
There would be no real loyalty in their labor, 
no desire to see the logs roll out because they 
meant the winning of a race. Just as he was 
about to move towards the door, to his surprise 
he saw Pierre Lavin jump to his feet and heard 
his voice ring out: 

** What is it the matter with you types of 
pigs?” he cried. “ Have you no tongues in 
your heads? Me, I thought you were lumber- 
jacks, men of the woods who loved a fight, a 
race, things fit for men to love! What is it 
now? You speak that the grub is rotten, that 
it’s too cold for to do the work ! Bah ! Women 
all of you! You hear what Boss Jerry says? 
Come let us get a million from the woods 
before the thaw comes ! What a game ! To run 
a race with spring itself! That is Sport for 


JERRY RIDES IT OUT 159 

men! And you sit silent! Bah! Me, Pierre 
Lavin, I spit on you ! 

For a moment Jerry expected to see the little 
Canadian buried under a scrambling mass of 
maddened men, but to his surprise, the crowd 
made no move. Whether the flashing eye of 
the man who had flayed them so unmercifully 
held them quiet, or whether it was their guilty 
consciences, he was never able to judge. 

Just at the moment when it seemed impossible 
for the tension to endure longer without break- 
ing, the door leading from the messroom opened 
and Ran Blair stepped in. Instantly everyone’s 
attention turned from Lavin to the newcomer, 
who stood straight beside the door jamb. His 
face was pale and his hands worked nervously 
while his eyes roved over the crowd. 

When his glance met Jerry King’s, it stopped 
and held. It was as if he had been hunting for 
the other boy’s eyes before he could speak. For 
a moment longer he was silent and at last when 
the words did come they seemed forced and 
unnatural. 

“I — I have been inside there listening to 
what — what has been going on. I couldn’t — 


160 JERRY KING 

couldn’t stand it a minute longer.” He took a 
long breath and seemed to straighten up to at 
least another inch. 

“I — I am the trouble with this camp ! I 
have been the one who has stirred up all the 
discontent and disloyalty. Because I had a 
grudge against Jerry King there, I came here 
and tried to wreck his job for him. I was 
getting even ” 

“ But you told me that Thomas would pay us 
all a big piece of change if we held up the 
work,” challenged one of the men, forgetting in 
his excitement that he was committing himself 
to a crime. 

“I know I did but you all were big enough 
fools to believe it! It was a cinch! You were 
so easy, it was a shame. Thomas had nothing 
to do with it. I just used that to make you help 
my scheme ! ” 

When the men made a rush for Blair they 
found that Jerry, Pierre and Nils were blocking 
the way. 

“ Let him finish 1 ” they shouted and after a 
moment things were quiet again. 

“But why do you teil this now, you fool?” 


JERRY RIDES IT OUT 161 

Jerry cried. “ Don’t you know they will about 
kill you?” 

“ I can’t help it. I got so ashamed of myself, 
so disgusted with the thing I had done, that 
when I saw the men were Holding back from 
helping you because of the lies I told ’em, I 
had to come out, fix things as best I could, and 
take the consequences ! ” 

He turned to the crowd of growling lumber- 
jacks. 

“ Men, I’ve lied to you ! Tve been a snake in 
the grass, willing to bite the people who helped 
me. It’s not to my credit that I’m sorry now. 
It doesn’t make what IVe done one bit better. 
But, for the love of everything good, take out 
your grudge against me by lumbering for Jerry 
King with everything that’s in you! You must 
help him win out if only to make good your 
own disloyalty ! ” 

The pale-faced boy smiled again and held out 
his hands. 

Now,” he said, Tm ready for whatever 
you are going to do to me. If you kill me, I 
guess it’s better than I deserve I ” 

The confession that they had heard was so 


162 JERRY KING 

unexpected, so staggering that there was some 
confusion in the men’s minds and they hesitated. 

But Jerry and Pierre did not. Without say- 
ing a Word they grabbed Blair and ran him 
through the door by which he had entered. 
Nils, too, seemed to know what was expected 
of him, for he planted himself in front of the 
closed door ready to delay the mob’s progress. 

Jerry did not feel safe until he and Pierre 
had won to the shelter of the van with their 
companion. Owing to the fact that the cash 
and accounts were kept here, this shanty was 
more solidly built and had bars over the 
Windows. 

“ I reckon we can hold ’em off until they cool 
down a bit,” panted Jerry. 

“ Maybeso,” was Pierre’s contribution, glar- 
ing at the cowering lad they had snatched from 
destruction. But me, I think better perhaps 
we throw this — this out to ^em. Then they 
cool off much quicker ! ” 

We won^t do that,” returned the young boss 
of the job. “It would be poor pay for what 
he’s done for us to-night. Unless my guess is 
dead wrong, the men will work their heads off 


JERRY RIDES IT OUT 163 

from now on. And they wouldn’t if Blaii" 
hadn’t come in when he did.” 

“ But you are always right,” agreed the 
Frenchman, yet there was real regret in his tone. 

‘‘ Before you kick me out or do anything eise 
with me, I’d like to say one more thing.” It 
was Ran Blair who spoke. “It was true that 
Thomas told me to bribe the men to hold up 
the job. He has a grudge against O’Day and 
it fitted in with the one I had against you, King.” 

“Then why did you teil the gang it was a 
lie?” asked Jerry, puzzled. 

“ Because I wanted to help you as much as I 
could at the end. If the men think I lied to 
them they won’t give another thought to 
Thomas. If I hadn’t told them that, perhaps 
some of them would have gone to him. That 
would have been bad medicine for you. That’s 
all I’ve got to say except to thank you for get- 
ting me away from that bunch. Here they come 
now ! ” 

They could hear footsteps scrunching in the 
snow approaching the shanty, but were sur- 
prised at the quietness. There was no shouting 
or yelling. 


164 JERRY KING 

Finally when the Steps had come quite dose, 
a single voice was heard. It was old Penny. 

“ Boss Jerry, the boys have done got over 
their mad and they’ve told me to say what’s on 
their chests. It’s this way: If you want for 
that onery houn’ dawg what was my cookee to 
git away with his face and bones in-tact, he will 
git away. In fact, the boys want to say that i£ 
you was to overlook what they done to you an’ 
Boss O’Day in the past an’ say no more about 
it, why they ain’t a thing you can ask ’em but 
what they’d do. Moresomever, they have gone 
so far as to say that if they don’t git out your 
million feet for ye, it’ll be ’cause each an’ every- 
one o’ the lowdown lumberjacks what don’t 
appreciate fine cookin’, which the same are not 
beggin’ of their pardons, will be in the hors- 
pittle! Ain’t that so, boys? ” 

The cheer that echoed through the woods was 
evidence enough that Penny had expressed their 
feelings. 

Jerry threw open the door and stepped out. 

“ If you’re with me, men, I’m sure with you. 
What’s past is past. Turn in now and let’s hit 
the high Spots to-morrow ! ” 


165 


JERRY RIDES IT OUT 

When he came in again there seemed to be a 
questioning look on Blair’s face. Pierre had 
gone off with the men, so they were alone. 
Jerry sat down and looked at the other boy 
steadily. Somehow there seemed to be a change 
in Blair’s face, as if he had grown older, more 
steady. 

“ Well, Blair,” he questioned at last, what 
now ? ” 

“ I don’t know,” said the other miserably. 
“ Of course, Pli go somewheres, but it won’t 
help me any. I guess I’m just plain no good.” 

“ I don’t believe that,” returned Jerry slowly. 
Then he shot out a question. “ Blair, have you 
finished with the rough stuff? Are you ready 
to run straight now? ” 

‘‘ What do you mean ? ” almost whispered the 
other boy. 

“ Are you willing to try to be loyal and work 
like a man? ” 

Blair almost sobbed out his answer. 

If ever I do another rotten thing I’ll shoot 
myself ! ” 

‘^You’re sure?” 

'' Absolutely ! ” 


166 JERRY KING 

“ Then you go to scaling to-morrow. Fm 
going to try you out.” 

Then, before Ran Blair could stammer his 
thanks, Jerry King had slipped out of the 
shanty. 


CHAPTER XIV 


RAN BLAIR’S SCHEME 

It was as if an entirely different bunch of 
men had taken the places of the old gang in 
the woods. When Jerry King got out on the 
job the next morning — he had delayed coming 
from the office shanty purposely in order to let 
Pierre have a free hand on his first day as fore- 
man — he f ound the work going as it had never 
gone before. 

Pierre was everywhere, urging, encouraging 
the men. He evidently feit the dignity and 
responsibility of his new position, and he was 
determined to make good. 

Jerry came upon him first at one of the skid- 
ways, where he was proving that few men could 
give him pointers on handling a cant hook even 
if an axe was his particular tool. One of the 
regulär cant hook men had not been moving as 
quickly as the Frenchman thought he should, so 
167 


168 JERRY KING 

he had climbed upon the pile and proved his 
point. When he had finished he joined Jerry 
and they moved off to another part of the job. 

“Well, Pierre, how are things going?” 

The new foreman could hardly make his 
tongiie work slow enough to be intelligible. He 
sputtered and spluttered, but the boy realized 
that what he was trying to say was that never 
had men seemed so willing to work and so well 
fitted to do their Jobs. A million feet? Bah! 
It was nothing! Then he sobered a little and 
said seriously: 

“ But that was a big thing you did last night, 
Boss Jerry. All the men they talk of it to-day. 
You have made them all your friends, every 
one!’’ 

“ You think so? ” said Jerry a little anxiously. 

“ Yes. To-day you can do anything that you 
will with them. They would try and go get the 
moon for you if you say so ! ” 

“ I hope so,” was Jerry’s rejoinder, “ because 
Fm going to ask them to do something I don’t 
think they are going to like very much.” 

“ You just try them! But what is it? ” 

“ After you left me with Blair last night ” 


RAN BLAIR’S SCHEME 169 

“ Me, I think it better than he has gone away 
before we get back to camp to-night.” 

He won’t be gone ! ” 

“ What is it you say? ” 

“ He won’t be gone ! After you left I fold 
him I’d give him another chance — that he could 
stay on as scaler ! ” 

Pierre looked at his boss with amazement in 
his eyes. Yet there was something of admira- 
tion there too. 

“That — that snake/' he stammered, “that 
snake, he’s going to remain for to be our scaler? 
After what he speak that he has done against 
you and the big boss ? Boss Jerry, are you crazy 
in the head? ” 

“ Perhaps I am. But, Pierre, I think Blair 
has had enough of crookedness this trip and has 
learned his lesson. There must be something 
good in him or he never would have done what 
he did last night. If he goes out now it will 
mean he will have to quit this country for good, 
for what he’s done will be talked over in every 
camp in Canada within a week. I think it’s up 
to US to help him make good. Don’t you think 


170 JERRY KING 

“ For me, I do not think so one little bit ! 
But if you want it so, Pierre Lavin will help, 
don’t worry about that.” 

“ Help me then by telling me how to spring it 
on the men.” 

Pierre thought for a moment before 
answering. 

That is one hard nut for to crack,” said he 
at last. “ Me, I think maybeso we better not 
teil the men anything at all. You teil Blair he’s 
to go about his business like nothing has hap- 
pened. Maybeso if that — that Blair he has 
got enough nerve, the gang will leave him alone. 
What you think? ” 

“ Perhaps,” was Jerry’s rather dubious an- 
swer. ‘‘ That plan’s good as any, I guess, but 
I thought if I should teil the men first ” 

“No!” returned Pierre decidedly. “You 
have talked enough. Now, if anyone speaks 
anything to you about this fellow staying, you 
must teil them so that he stays for no reasoi^ 
except that it is your wish! Lumberjacks, they 
must not try to think for the boss.” 

This advice seemed so sound that Jerry 
adopted it, telling Blair that he was to go out 


RAN BLAIR’S SCHEME 171 

on the job and do bis work, but under no cir- 
cumstances to get into any argument. 

It’s a pretty tough stunt ahead of you,” 
Blair was warned by Jerry King. The bunch 
will ride you pretty hard or I miss my guess.” 

I’ll make a big try at Standing whatever 
they give me,” replied the other boy, who had 
spent the day over the accounts in the van and 
had not shown himself out on the job. “ And 
what’s more, I’ll be mighty glad of the chance. 
I’ve got a long ways to come back and I want 
to get Started soon ! ” 

“That’s the right ideal” Jerry was tickled 
to find that this was the spirit in which Blair 
was going ahead. “ You’ll come out all right.” 

I don’t — don’t quite know how to thank 

you for what you’ve ” 

“ Cut that part out,” Jerry ordered, a little 
embarrassed. ‘‘ If you make good and help us 
get out that lumber in time it will be thanks 
enough.” Then, as a sudden thought Struck 
him, he went on : But say, Blair, do you think 
Thomas has any other plan in case you couldn’t 
— I mean, in case we did succeed in getting out 
the minimum four million?” 


172 JERRY KING 

“ I don’t know,” was the answer. He did 
not teil me anything except what he wanted me 
to do. I’ve been thinking that he probably has 
something eise up his sleeve, but what that is, 
is more than I can teil.” 

“ Well, I’m going over that contract again 
with a fine tooth comb,” half mused Jerry as he 
went back to the office. 

But his rereading of that important document 
told him no more than he already knew. He 
found the Provision for delivery of the minimum 
number of feet but everything eise seemed right. 
He tried to teil himself that Thomas might be 
willing to try and keep them from delivering the 
logs, but that his grudge against O’Day could 
not possibly be great enough to make him try 
any other monkey business if he should fail. 
But in spite of this, there was a feeling in Jerry 
that Thomas was quite capable of anything to 
gain his ends. 

But after a day or two, Jerry realized that it 
was not going to be any too easy for the men 
to make up for the delay caused by their sol- 
diering and disloyalty. They were working like 
fiends and so far everything had gone smoothly, 


RAN BLAIR’S SCHEME 


173 


yet there was no telling what might occur or 
how long they would have before the thaw. 
Thomas might win out as it stood. It was hard 
to admit, but there was barely an even chance 
for them to beat him. 

Since Pierre was proving that the time he had 
spent as an axeman was a sheer waste when he 
was such a good foreman, and Ran Blair had 
taken the scaling off his hands, Jerry found that 
his time was best taken up with planning travoy 
roads and selecting new bunches of timber to 
cut. 

If a forestry expert had gone over the tract 
Jerry had cut he would have been shocked, for 
he would have seen that no attempt had been 
made to log systematically. Time was driving 
the boy so he picked out only such clumps of 
trees as stood together, discarding isolated trees 
although they might be good timber. As a 
result of this planning ahead the axemen knew 
just what was their Job and did it without the 
waste of a precious minute. 

As he had predicted, Blair had far from an 
easy time of it. When he first appeared at the 
skidways, the men had jeered at him and tried 


174 JERRY KING 

to provoke a quarrel, but Ran had set bis jaw 
and worked on doggedly. After a day or two 
of this, they happened on a much more cruel 
form of showing their displeasure and distrust. 

No one said a word to him ! Blair might have 
been cast on a desert Island for all the human 
companionship that came his way. On the job 
it was not so bad, but at mealtimes or in the 
bunkhouse, they made the boy suffer. Pierre 
was only a little help and Ran was too proud to 
seek out Jerry King to talk to. 

Pierre told Jerry of these conditions and often 
the young boss would go over to the van shanty 
at night on some errand which was only an 
excuse to cover his real purpose of talking with 
Blair. The talk was of many things, but rarely 
of the work at hand. Jerry was sure that Ran 
kept off the subject for fear that he would drift 
into a tale of his own hardships and that it 
would seem as if he was a quitter. 

But one day Blair did not wait for Jerry 
to show Up at the van. Before supper call had 
sounded, he presented himself at the office, his 
face flushed with excitement. 

“What’s up?” said Jerry. 


RAN BLAIR’S SCHEME 


175 


“I — I think I’ve found out something,” sput- 
tered Blair. ‘‘There’s a way to beat Thomas, 
even if the thaw catches us!’' 

How do you mean ? ” Jerry demanded 
eagerly. “YouTe joking. We are done, fin- 
ished, gone up the spout entirely if the snow 
leaves us.” 

“ If my plan is any good,” Ran Blair asserted, 
“ the thaw will help us.” 

The young boss was puzzled. He had no 
idea what was coming, but somehow the other 
boy’s confident air made him feel as if luck 
was going to break their way. 

Shoot ahead. Don’t keep me guessing,” he 
demanded. 

^‘Righto. Here’s the dope. IVe spent the 
last afternoon or so up at the very edge of the 
tract we are supposed to cut. Thomas showed 
me the map before I came here, so I know. 
The way we’re headed with the cutting, we’ll 
never be able to get to it this year if we do 
miracles! And it’s a fine piece of close-sitting 
timber '' 

know all about that piece,” said Jerry, 
all hope gone out of his voice. “ There’s enough 


176 JERRY KING 

there to make up our million dead easy, 
but » 

“But what?” 

Well, a road would have to be cut up there 
and we haven’t got the time to do it. What’s 
the use of cutting the timber if we can’t get it 
to the railroad, Fd like to know/’ 

But that’s just it ! We can get this to the 
railroad and without cutting a road either ! 

“You’re crazy in the head!” 

“Just wait a minute,” pleaded the excited 
Blair. “ How about floating the logs down? 
Wouldn’t that do it?” 

The mystified Jerry stared at his companion. 

“Float ’em? On what? Hope?” 

“ Hope, my eye ! Water, Jerry King, water ! ” 

“ But there’s no stream bigger than a brook 
up in that country ” 

“ Isn’t there, indeed? Did you happen to 
jump across the line of our tract and see what 
was on the other side?” 

“ No-o,” hesitated Jerry King, “ I don’t think 
I did.” 

“ Well, if you had, you would have seen the 
frozen surface of guite a good sized brook and 


RAN BLAIR’S SCHEME 177 

when the thaw comes and swells it with melted 
snow it will be a roaring river ! ” 

“ But if it’s not on our land how can it 
help US?” 

“What difference does that make? And, 
anyhow, I think it can be made to come on our 
land without much trouble.” 

The training Jerry had had with the Reclama- 
tion Service now was useful, for it gave him 
an inkling of Ran’s plan. The idea was to dam 
the brook and divert the water over their land. 
So he said: 

^‘There’s a place to build a diversion dam?” 

“You bet. There is a narrow gorge it runs 
through and a day’s work of the gang will do 
what we want ! ” 

“ That’s fine, Blair, fine. TU go out with 
you early in the morning and look things over.” 

The possibility that Blair’s plan might be 
feasible cheered Jerry enormously, for the cer- 
tainty of failure had been growing in his mind. 
The change in the men had come too late. They 
were working together like a great, well-oiled 
machine, but the machine could not do the 
impossible and the boy was sure that nothing 


178 JERRY KING 

less than the impossible would win out for him. 

He knew that it was quite possible for the 
men to cut that big bunch of hemlock that Blair 
had spoken of in the time that was left, provided 
they did not have to knock off to do the hauling 
to the railroad, This cut, with what was already 
on the skidways, would easily total the necessary 
number of board feet. If they could cut the 
logs, travoy them only the short distance to the 
stream, it would leave the teams free to take 
the piles of logs now on the skids to the railroad. 

The next morning the two boys set out 
through the white clad forest towards the place 
Blair had discovered. The latter was in better 
spirits than he had ever been before. It was 
as if the fact that he had contributed something 
constructive to the work had given him back a 
little self-assurance. This pleased Jerry a lot 
and he hoped with all his heart that Blair's 
hunch was workable. If it was, it might mean 
the saving of the boy’s whole life. 

It proved to be as Ran had said. A dam 
could easily be built and then the new stream 
bed would be across through their tract. From 
this prospective stream bed rose thickly wooded 


RAN BLAIR’S SCHEME 


179 


hills which would yield a great Harvest of logs. 
Then, too, the travoys would be short and little 
time need be wasted in hauling. 

Gee whiz ! ” Jerry ejaculated when he had 
examined everything. This looks good to me ! 
But, Blair, there’s one thing that bothers me. 
I don’t think we can set the gang building that 
dam. Somebody might spül and if Thomas got 
on he’d drive us off. It’s on his land.” 

That’s so,” Ran said soberly. Then he 
brightened up. “ But why can’t we build it — 
you and I and Pierre and Nils perhaps? We 
could slip out here at night — the moon’s full 
and we’d have plenty of light ! ” 

“We can! And what’s more, we will. And 
weTe going to cut this piece just as you said. 
I guess the old forestry Service teaches a fellow 
something once in a while 1 ” 

“ Pd never have thought of it if I hadn’t 
been with that outfit a while, that’s sure! But 
I forgot to teil you the best of it. When we 
bring this stream through here it will follow a 
course that goes right smack up to the railroad 
just a little ways from where our road hits it.” 
“ How do you know?” 


180 JERRY KING 

“ I followed it out yesterday.” 

“ Good for you ! If this thing comes out 
all right it will be because of what you’ve 
done ” 

“ Nix on that, Jerry, nix on that. If you — 
you hadn’t given me another chance, where 
would I have been? If this helps any it will be 
only a little payment on account of what I owe 
you! ” 


CHAPTER XV 


THE BUILDING OF THE DAM 

When Jerry got back to the section the men 
were cutting, he called Pierre aside and told 
him what he’d seen and that he planned to Start 
cutting in the new place in the morning. 

Clear up here to-day, Pierre,” he ordered. 
“ and Start the sledges carrying the logs to the 
railroad. We’ll need only half the horses for 
travoying up there.” 

At first the Frenchman was dubious about 
the new venture, but after he had looked the 
ground over for himself, he was as enthusiastic 
as the boys. It was plain the men were puzzled 
when they were set to work in a place from 
which there seemed no possible way to get the 
logs to the shipping point, but their enthusiasm 
for Jerry had not yet worn off and they said 
nothing. Besides, Pierre kept at their heels 
so closely that they scarcely had time to do any 
thinking. 


181 


182 JERRY KING 

For a few nights Pierre and Nils, Jerry and 
Blair, worked overtime, but the result of their 
labor was a serviceable dam. It had been con- 
structed of sapling poles sharpened at one end 
and laid at an angle against the stream. 

“At first she will leak a whole big lot,’" 
announced Pierre, when it was done, “ but soon 
as the thaw comes we can put a lot of dirt 
against it. Then it will be all right.” 

So busy had Jerry been with all these things, 
that he did not realize how fast the days were 
slipping by. Now almost any day might bring 
Link O’Day back and he would have to give 
account of what he had done. 

What if O’Day should feel that the chance 
he had taken by coming up to the new section 
was not justified? With a sinking heart the 
boy remembered how set Link had been against 
the theories of the Forestry Service. What 
he had done was the sort of thing the Service 
would have said was right — but would O’Day? 
Perhaps he would r^ther have gone on in the 
old way even if it meant failure at last. He 
expressed something of his worriment to Ran 
Blair. 


BUILDING OF THE DAM 


183 


O’Day wouldn’t have left you in Charge if 
he wasn’t willing to back up anything you might 
do. Don’t worry ! ” 

And Jerry really could not worry much as 
the jumble of logs grew greater in the valley. 
The men sang as they worked and there seemed 
scarcely any intervals between the glorious rush- 
ing falls of the great trees. In his Imagination 
Jerry saw the water rising and at last carrying 
his timber towards its destination. It was a 
good plan and it was not going to fail. 

At the end of two weeks O’Day had not come 
back, but a note had come saying there was 
money in the bank for the payroll. It was a 
relief to know that O’Day’s trip had been suc- 
cessful, but Jerry wondered what was keeping 
his friend. A suspicion that he might have gone 
on to Chicago flashed into his brain but he 
could not conceive that O’Day, worried as he 
must have been over the Situation at the camp, 
would have taken the time just now to go so far 
away. 

However, since he did not come it was up 
to Jerry to wait, and while he waited, to do as 
much work as possible. He found his Job 


184 JERRY KING 

easy, for the whole gang had become enthusi- 
astic about the race against time and they 
needed no urging to tear into their work like 
famished wolves. 

The sledge drivers and loaders were doing 
their share and the great piles of logs at the 
skidways melted as the mountain of timber grew 
along the railroad. 

One morning when Jerry happened to be 
watching the sledges unload, he saw that a 
frozen stream paralleled the rails. 

“ This is the stream Blair expects our little 
river to empty in, I guess,” he reflected. 

Funny I never noticed it before. I wonder 
where it goes.” 

Because of idle curiosity more than anything 
eise, he began to follow its course. The beauty 
of the country led him on and before he knew 
it he was far from camp. Hemmed in by the 
silent, snow-laden trees, the river bed stretched 
ahead invitingly. Pulled by no tangible reason, 
he went on. What he expected to find around 
the next corner, he did not know, yet it was as 
if something was waiting for him. 

But it was not around the next corner or the 


BUILDING OF THE DAM 


185 


one after that. He plodded on, a queer sort of 
excitement Holding him in its grip. His empty 
stomach told him that it was lunch time but 
he could not turn back. A little farther on he 
was glad that he had not listened to the voice 
of hunger. 

Spread before him across the white river bed 
lay a ridge of snow which was too even in 
height to be the work of nature. It was a dam! 

A glance into the woods showed him that this 
section had been logged within the past year 
or two and that this river had been used to 
drive the logs to the mill. It had been too 
shallow to float the logs easily, so this dam had 
been built. In all probability there would be a 
series of dams farther along until the river 
became wide and deep enough to make them 
unnecessary. Jerry knew how this stratagem 
was worked. The logs were floated behind the 
first dam until a sufficiently large hill of water 
had gathered; then they were let loose and the 
rush of water carried them to the next dam, 
where the process was repeated. 

As the boy had believed, not much farther 
down the river another dam had been built. 


186 JERRY KING 

The covering of ice and snow hid the condition 
it was in, but as the woods were evidence that 
the lumbering had taken place only a year or 
two before, the dams ought to be in fair shape. 

Jerry did not know of what value the knowl- 
edge he had gained would prove to be, yet as 
he made his way back to camp, he feit he had 
put in a good day’s work. 

That night when Pierre came to the office to 
report the day’s activities, Jerry asked: 

Do you know anything about that stream 
which begins along by the railroad ? ” 

Sure. When the springtime comes it makes 
a big river. You see that I make the piles of 
logs high up on the bank so they will not be 
washed away.” 

noticed that all right. But what I want 
to know is where the river goes.” 

“ I think it flows sometime into the great sea, 

but where I do not know ” 

That isn’t what I mean. I want to know if 
it hits any sawmill.” 

“ Of a certainty. Now I comprehend. To 
Thomas and Olsen’s. They have used it for 
the drive in all the cutting they do before last 


BUILDING OF THE DAM 


187 


year. Up here it is become too shallow and they 
have to use the railroad. Me, I have work for 
them maybeso two year ago when we use the 
river. But it was a great hard job when we 
have to use the dams. Men all cuss when the 
logs have jam.” 

‘'But the dams were successful? ’’ 

“ Oh, sure. That was the only way we could 
get the logs out, so what the men say it makes 
no difference.” 

This conversation and the discovery that had 
prompted it, gave Jerry something to think of. 
He wondered if the head of water they were 
going to divert through their new channel would 
be great enough to float their logs to the rail- 
road. There was a chance that the water would 
spread over the level places and become so 
shallow that it would leave their precious timber 
stranded. He had not thought of this possibility 
in the skelter of excitement. 

Therefore, the first free moment he had the 
next day he used in going over what would be 
the course of their new stream. For the most 
part it followed a little valley whose steep 
sides would force the water into a narrow and 


188 JERRY KING 

deep channel. But at last this ideal condition 
ended and the gulch widened out. Jerry went 
back to camp and fetched Ran Blair to the scene. 

“ Another job of dam-building for us, I 
reckon,” said Jerry. ''And it’s going to hurt 
like the dickens to take the men off the cutting. 
This isn’t a job we can do in off times.” 

" You’re right,” Blair assented. " I didn’t 
think this would be necessary when I told you 
my plan. Perhaps I shouldn’t have started this 
Stunt.” 

"Don’t worry about that. It was the only 
thing to do. The thing to bother about now is 
how to get this dam built. I guess we’ll have 
to let the men into the scheme.” 

" I think so too. Somehow, I don’t think any 
of them will squeal. They won’t have anything 
to do with me, but I can’t say I blame them 
much. But — but they are a good bunch and — 
and I’m going to make them like me before I 
get through ! ” 

" That’s the stuff ! ” Jerry encouraged him. 
" Stick to that and you’ll have ’em eating out 
of your hand. But about the dam — Pli teil 
Pierre about it to-night and we’ll Start everyone 


BUILDING OF THE DAM 189 

we can spare from the actual cutting on Monday. 
We’ll have to — it’s our only chance!” 

When Pierre was shown the place and told 
what was the plan in mind, he agreed at once 
that it was the only thing to do, but it was 
evident that he hated to take even one man 
from his regulär job. 

“ Me, I think I smell the spring coming,” he 
said, sniffing the air. “ Only a little time more 
for to get those logs out/’ 

“ But even if we get them out, where will we 
be if we can’t get them to the railroad?” Jerry 
demanded. I’ve told you this more than 
once ! ” 

** All right, all right, I know, Boss Jerry, but 
me, I hate so much to take the men from the 
cutting.” 

“ It’s got to be done all the same,” was Jerry’s 
parting remark. 

The next day was Sunday and Jerry slept late 
after a long evening spent over the accounts. 
After he had dressed he went over to the cook 
shanty only to find it deserted. This was sur- 
prising, for usually the men sprawled the long 
day away, talking or playing games. 


190 JERRY KING 

Where could they be? He slipped into the 
bunkhouse, only to find it as empty as the mess 
room. Had they all quit overnight? This 
terrible thought flashed from his mind as quickly 
as it had slipped in, for he could not believe 
that Pierre and Nils would be able to do such 
a thing no matter what the provocation. 

But Old Penny ought to be around anyhow. 
Even so, there was no answer to his shouts. 
Happening by the great cook stove, he saw 
food — for one person — carefully placed so 
that it would keep warm. Evidently it was for 
him. So he ate before making any further 
attempt to find out what had caused a whole 
camp of men to vanish so completely. 

As he drank his coffee, a possible explanation 
occurred to him. So anxious was he to find out 
if it was true, that he left half of it, bolted out 
into the frosty air and started off in the direction 
of the proposed location of his new dam. 

As he got nearer to the spot, he knew that 
his idea was correct, for the sound of many 
axes rang through the clear air. 

They were building his dam on their day of 
rest! They were using their own time so that 


BUILDING OF THE DAM 191 

the regulär work of the week would not be 
interrupted ! 

A thrill of happiness shot through the boy. 
He knew now that for a certainty he had won 
the absolute loyalty of his men. That they had 
become a close-knit, loyal band that would go 
through anything and work to the limit to make 
his job a success. 

When he came on the scene of operations, he 
was amazed at the progress that had already 
been made. Everyone was there ; even old Penny 
was swinging an axe and screeching useless 
directions at everybody eise. The sledge drivers 
and cant hook men were pulling the logs into 
place and chopping away the snow and frozen 
earth so that the pointed ends of the timber 
could be driven into the hard ground. 

It was as if the men were at play. Shouts 
of laughter echoed and snatches of song were 
heard. But, when he stepped out into the Clear- 
ing all noise ceased and the work stopped short. 
The men stood still, a little embarrassed, like 
great schoolboys, caught doing a kind deed. 

He saw that something was expected of him, 
that he must make some sign. It was horribly 


102 Jerry ring 

embarrassing because he could think of nothing 
that would teil the men the great gratitude he 
feit for what they had done. 

At last he threw up his arms and shouted at 
the top of his lungs: 

“Thank you!’^ 

Then, to cover his confusion, he grabbed an 
axe and started to chop wildly at a log that 
would never be of any use to the dam. 


CHAPTER XVI 


THOMAS PAYS A CALL 

A little later when the work was again boom- 
ing along, Jerry King found an opportunity to 
speak to bis foreman and learn from that 
excited person how the thing had come about. 

“ Last night I teil my old partner, Nils, .what’s 
going for to happen on Monday and it is that 
big Swede that is responsible. He it is who teil 
the men and speak that they work to-day. But, 
by golly,” the foreman’s voice was full of pride, 
“ those lumberjacks only need for to know. 
After that they are like great boys; they laugh 
and yell, and get out long before the light is 
enough bright for the work. A brave bunch of 
pigs, those jacks! ” 

“ You bet!’' was the fervent reply. “But I 
don’t think they ought to work on their day to 
rest.” 

“ I know; but me, I think maybeso they rest 
193 


194 JERRY KING 

a lot when they do this. It is for them a great 
game — a fine sport. And too, maybeso the 
good God will think that they have done right 
to do a good deed on this day. There is no 
church in the woods for the lumberjack and 
in the shanties he must play cards all day or 
fight. Me, I think it better he is outside where 
he laugh and get kindness in his heart. What 
do you think?” 

Jerry was willing to be convinced, but he 
made up his mind that never again if he could 
help it would he let the men work on Sunday. 
This time the need was so great that it seemed 
to be justified. 

Under so many willing hands the dam grew 
as if by magic and when darkness came it was 
almost finished. Anything eise that had to 
be done to it could be accomplished at odd 
moments. 

In the thick of the work, doing his share 
with all the strength that was in him. Ran 
Blair had won a grudging approval from the 
men. One or two of them had spoken to him 
almost on even terms, so at nightfall he, too, 
feit that he had made progress. 


THOMAS PAYS A CALL 


195 


The regulär logging went on almost without 
friction, for the weather stayed cold and clear. 
The fact that the men were enthusiastic and 
eager seemed to prevent accidents and beyond 
the usual number of broken trace bars and split 
chains, nothing serious happened. 

But the week passed without sign of O’Day. 
Jerry was beginning to worry in earnest about 
his friend when a letter came saying that the 
delay was unavoidable, but to expect him any 
minute. The letter was postmarked Chicago. 

Probably Link knew what he was about, but 
Jerry thought it was queer that the man would 
take just this time to go to trace up his family. 
The Situation at the camp was so serious that it 
seemed to the boy that O’Day should have 
wanted to come back unless he was actually 
sick and couldn’t move. 

But the Job at hand gave him little opportu- 
nity to think of these things. He was too busy 
and he had too much faith in Link to let any- 
thing interfere with the work that had to be 
done. 

The spring that Pierre had smelt in the air 
now seemed to be coming fast. Even Jerry 


196 JERRY KING 

could feel it. Ran’s tablets showed that they 
still lacked about two hundred thousand feet 
to make up the minimum, and things looked bad. 

Pierre drove the men, and Jerry drove Pierre. 

“ Just a few weeks more ! ” prayed Jerry. 

Just a few weeks and we’ll be all right ! ” 

But it did not look as if those weeks would 
be granted them. One morning, after the sun 
had been high for two hours, the snow on the 
tree branches began to drip and by afternoon 
the men were soaked. Then it got cold again 
and the clothes froze, making the men’s move- 
ments difficult. 

“ Or spring, she will come fast,” commented 
Pierre. She’s got started now ! ” 

This happening caused the logs to roll into 
the valley even faster. The scaling tablets 
showed the minimum approaching closer and 
closer. It was a big race — a man’s race — as 
Pierre had said that night in the bunkhouse. 

One day Ran Blair remarked suddenly to 
Jerry: 

“ I was to report to Thomas just as soon as 
it began to thaw. I wonder what he will do 
when I don't show up?” 


THOMAS PAYS A CALL 


197 


“ Perhaps he knows already what weVe been 
Up to,” suggested Jerry. ‘‘Talk travels quick 
through the woods.” 

“ I don’t think this has. Pierre has kept 
every mother’s son of a lumberjack in camp 
since Boss O’Day went away. What I believe 
is that Thomas still thinks things are in a bad 
way up here. He knows that the boss is away 
and therefore everything is more than sure to 
be in a muss and that we can’t possibly succeed. 
But I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see him 
come Up here at any minute to gloat over his 
revenge.’* 

“ You think he might do that?” Jerry asked. 
“ Wait a minute, let me think. . . . I’ve got 
it ! Listen. If we can keep him away f rom here 
for another week, so that he won’t know what 
we are up to, it will Spike any other plan he 
might have. Isn’t that so?” 

“ Sure!” 

“ Do you think you could go down and report 
to him that the stuff we have on the skidways 
falls far short of what we ought to have? You 
needn’t say anything about the stuff up in the 
valley — we’ll hold that as the last card to play.” 


198 JERRY KING 

“You bet I can! TU Start this afternoon. 
But, Jerry, I hope this will be the last time I 
ever have to — to lie about anything.” 

Jerry’s plan had been formed so quickly that 
he had not realized that it really meant lying 
to Thomas. 

I hope so too,” he said quickly, so much 
that I’m not going to let you do it this time 
even! I didn’t think, that’s all. We’ll have 
to take the chance o£ Thomas finding out what- 
ever he can. You mustn’t go!” 

But, Jerry, it won’t be any harm in fooling 
Thomas. He deserves it! And we mustn’t lose 
no matter what we have to do to win ! ” 

I’m not so sure of that. But, anyway, I 
can’t let you lie to help us out. Don’t let’s 
worry. We can win without that. If we can’t 
— we won’t deserve to.” 

So Ran did not go. 

A day or two later, however, his hunch that 
Thomas might show up on the job proved 
correct. 

Just before it was time for the men to come 
back from the woods a sleigh drove up and the 
burly form that Jerry had not seen since that 


THOMAS PAYS A CALL 199 

long-ago day in Pentico got out and entered the 
Office. Jerry happened to be in. 

It was all he could do to appear natural when 
the man greeted him in the same sort of bois- 
terous good humor that before had made the 
boy suspicious. But he knew that he would 
gain nothing by being openly hostile, so, as 
heartily as he could, he welcomed his visitor. 

“Just thought I’d run up. Wanted to see 
how you and my friend O’Day were getting 
along,” he rumbled in explanation of his coming. 
“YouVe had a good winter? But where’s 
O’Day? Will he be in soon?” 

Jerry knew that Thomas was bluffing about 
O’Day. “ He knows as well as I do that Link 
is away,” he said to himself, but aloud he 
merely remarked: 

“ Oh, didn’t you know he had gone outside? ” 

“No? Did he really? Must have been an 
important errand to take him out just at this 
time. I suppose he found the cutting of this 
nice little piece of mine so easy that he didn’t 
have to worry. As I told you before, I like 
O’Day — that’s the reason I made him such a 
good contract. When I like a man I like him. 


200 JERRY KING 

Besides, I wanted to show him that I had for- 
gotten that little muss-up we had — but perhaps 
he didn’t teil you about that?” 

Jerry hoped that Thomas’s love of hearing his 
own voice would keep him going until the men 
were safely in from the job. Then it would 
be too late for Thomas to go on a trip of 
inspection. If he could only keep Thomas from 
seeing the störe of logs that were lying ready 
for the freshet, everything would be in much 
better shape. So he answered that Link O’Day 
had merely mentioned that misunderstanding, 
“ but I think he’s forgotten all about it by now.” 

Just like your partner. Just like him ! Good 
fellow, that’s what I always say. O’Day’s a 
good fellow.” He beamed but his eyes were 
small and calculating. “Then you have been 
boss since he went away? Fine for a young 
fellow to be boss, fine! I suppose the men have 
worked all right?” 

“ I can’t complain,” returned the boy shortly ; 
“ they are doing as well for me as they did for 
O’Day before he left.” 

It seemed to Jerry that Thomas heaved a sigh 
of relief, probably because he knew that when 


THOMAS PAYS A CALL 


201 


O’Day had left the men were in a bad state 
and Jerry’s words seemed to mean that things 
were hardly any better. 

“ That’s fine ! I’m glad. But by the way, I 
just happened to think of it. Didn’t you give 
a fellow by the name of Blair a Job up here? ” 

Jerry nodded. 

“ Well, to be friendly, I ought to warn you 
about him — I had to fire him. Disliked to do 
it, but it was necessary. You look out for him: 
he’s a bad egg. Just thought I’d teil you, that’s 
all. Don’t thank me, it’s only neighborly,” and 
the man laughed unpleasantly. “ But I’ve got 
to go. Fm due up at Thirty-two to-night. 
Before I go I wonder if you would teil me 
how many feet you’ve got on the skids. That 
will help me in making arrangements at the 
mill.” 

Jerry was glad that the question had been put 
in just that way, for he could answer it quite 
truthfully and still leave Thomas thinking that 
he had won his dirty game. 

“ Something over three million,” he said. 
‘^I’ll get the exact figures.” 

‘'No — no ! Never mind, that’s all I need 


202 JERRY KING 

to know,” returned the man. “ Quite all I need 
to know ! ” 

As he spoke the smile on his face changed 
to a sneer and he got up from his chair and 
almost bellowed at the boy. Gone was the 
attempt at friendliness and in its place was a 
sort of triumphant rage. 

“ You know what it means, you little whipper- 
snapper? It means that I’ve beaten that stuck- 
up Partner of yours. It means that I’ve broken 
him! He’ll leave the woods without a Cent 
and I’ve done it, d’ye hear, I’ve done it! I 
waited a long time to get even but things do 
come to them that waits. Why — why don’t 
you say somethin’? Can’t you hear what I’m 
sayin’ to you?” 

The bottled up meanness of the man had come 
forth at last in a great flood of gloating. When 
Jerry had told him there was only a little over 
three million on the skids he could hold in his 
triumph no longer. 

Jerry stood up straight before the infuriated 
man and spoke calmly but with scorn in his tone. 

“I hear you, all right. You must be proud 
of yourself ” 


THOMAS PAYS A CALL 


203 


“ Of course Pm proud of myself,” cried 
Thomas, throwing caution to the winds.. 
“ Didn’t I slip that little joker in the contract? 
Didn’t I mess things up when the men got going 
too fast ” 

He stopped short, realizing that he had let 
slip something that should never be acknowl- 
edged. 

“ So you confess to that, you beast ! ” flamed 
Jerry. “ I knew you were back of it but I 
never thought you would boast of it! I ” 

But whatever the boy was about to say never 
was heard, for Thomas had reached forward 
and caught him in his great grip, pulling him 
off his feet. Jerry read in the man’s eyes that 
he was in for a terrible mauling, but before the 
first blow feil upon him, he heard the door creak 
open on its hinges. 

Thomas’s fingers slipped from their hold and 
from a sitting position Jerry saw who had 
entered. 

It was Link O’Day. And the look on his face 
was terrible to see. 

For a moment the two men eyed each other, 
then O’Day advanced slowly, as light on his 


204 JERRY KING 

feet as a cat. Not a word came through his 
clenched teeth. The big lumberman quailed 
before what he saw was coming. 

“ Crash ! ” O’Day’s fist had found its mark 
and behind it was all the strength that was in 
his wiry body. Thomas was a coward; this 
first blow was his finish. Ducking, scrambling, 
he tried to get out of the way of the torrent 
of blows that feil upon him. 

“You swine!” cried O’Day. '‘Fight or TU 
kill you!’^ 

Thomas finally crouched in a heap and would 
not get up and even O’Day’s fury was not 
sufficient to allow him to hit a man when he 
was down. 

Jerry had watched with flaming eyes. 

“ Let him go, Link,” he begged. “ He’s had 
enough ! ” 

“ Get up and get out of here,” ordered O’Day. 
“ Quick! ” 

Silently the big man struggled to his feet and 
collected his things. Then he shambled to the 
door. 

“You’re already paid out for this,” he man- 
aged to say through his bruised lips. “Fve 


THOMAS PAYS A CALL 


205 


broken you. Ask the boy — you haven’t cut 
your minimum and Fm going to hold you to 
your contract — and the timber belongs to me ! ” 
This was more than Jerry could stand. He 
did not stop to consider whether or not he would 
put Thomas on his guard but blurted out, 
“WeTe not licked yet! Don’t be so sure until 
the end. Maybe we’ll show you something 
before we’re through ! ” 

“ Get out ! ” was all that Link had to say. 

And Thomas got out. 


CHAPTER XVII 


RAN BLAIR ON GUARD 

“ Gee, Link, but Lm glad to see you ! And 
you sure came at just the right moment. Some- 
thing was about to break and I think it was 
going to be me ! 

Jerry’s attempt at a joke was a little feeble, 
for the tenseness of the happenings which had 
just gone before was still on him. He had 
spoken as the door slammed behind Thomas. 

“ I ought to have been here before and this 
couldn’t have happened at all,” replied O’Day. 
“ But you seemed to be getting on so well ” 

“ How did you know ? ” the boy demanded, 
surprised. 

“ ril explain. You see, when I left I did not 
want you to feel there were any strings on your 
being the boss, so I didn’t teil you where to 
reach me. But, in case of an emergency I left 
the address with Pierre Lavin so he could teil 
206 


RAN BLAIR ON GUARD 


207 


it to you if he thought it was necessary. After 
that bully thing you did at the bunkhouse he 
wanted me to know about it, so he got young 
Blair to write for him. Pierre can use an axe 
but a pen is something he doesn’t know much 
about. After that Blair got into the habit of 
writing on his own hook.” 

He never said anything to me about it.” 
“ No, but his letters told me the things you 
would never have said. How the men worked 

for you and the idea about the dam ” 

“ But, Link, that was Blair’s idea, not mine ! 
Did he wish it onto me ? ” 

“ He sure let me think so,” Link laughed. 
Anyhow that’s a score in his favor.” 

“ But why did you stay away so long? You 
got the money all right.” 

“ I was getting to that when you broke in. 
I knew from his letters that the men were 
working their heads off for you and it didn’t 
seem like good business for me to come back 
and mess things up. I didn’t make much of a 
success with ’em before I went away. I sort of 
doped it out that the longer I stayed away the 
better chance we had of winning out.” 


208 JERRY KING 

“ Quit kidding me, Link,” said the boy. “ The 
men will work just as hard for you.” 

‘‘Perhaps, but I didn’t want to take the 
Chance. What I did was to shoot up to Chicago 
where I believed I could do two things. One 
was to learn what had been found out about 
your parents and the other was to try to corral 
a little extra money so that I could hire an 
extra gang and throw ’em in here at the last 
minute if they were needed to get out our 
rninimum.” 

It showed how deeply the job had gripped 
Jerry when he asked first whether the money 
had been found. 

“ Sure, and a husky bunch of lumberjacks 
have just come in with me. But haven’t you 
any curiosity about the other thing? ” 

“ Of course, but it can wait until this job 
is over. We’ve just got to win out. It’s the 
most important thing in the world.” 

“ Fm glad you feel that way, for there’s 
another disappointment coming to you. My 
people in Chicago have not been able as yet to 
get a real line on anything. Every clue they 
have found has led to nothing. But they are 


RAN BLAIR ON GUARD 209 

still on the job and I think we’ll win out there 
too.” 

Since the Situation in Chicago was unchanged, 
Jerry saw no reason to bother about it further. 
He went back to the subject of the job. 

That’s great news about the new men, Link. 
I think we’re going to need them and need them 
badly! Practically all the logs of our first cut 
are at the railroad. As soon as the teams can 
be taken from hauling we can make a great 
drive up where we’re cutting now.” 

We will Start the new gang in the morning,” 
said O’Day, “ but what I want to talk to you 
about is this new stunt of the river. Do you 
honestly think it’s going to work?” 

“ It’s ffot to ! And anyway, Link, I think I 
can show you that it was our only chance.” 

“ I believe that without being shown. It was 
a good hunch, whether it works or not.” 

They talked over the details of the work until 
it was time to turn in. The next day Jerry 
showed Link all that had been accomplished. 

When O’Day appeared, Pierre Lavin started 
to grab an axe and go back to his old job, but 
Link stopped him. 


210 JERRY KING 

“What’s the idea, Pierre?” 

‘‘You are back. No need for two foremen. 

I go back to ” 

‘‘ The only place you go back to is being boss,” 
said O’Day with a smile. “ Perhaps if I had 
made you foreman at first we would not have 
had any trouble at all.” 

“ But what is it you will do ? ” asked the 
puzzled Frenchman. 

“ Boss you, I guess.” 

Under the new arrangement, Blair became a 
swamper and Jerry went back to scaling. O’Day 
had the good sense not to interfere with Pierre 
in any way and the work went on without a 
hitch. The new men were good workers and 
under their combined eiförts the logs came out 
so fast that Jerry was put to it to keep his 
scaling up to date. 

The camp was in good spirits. Everyone feit 
that success was in their grasp, that they were 
about to win the race against nature — and 
Thomas. 

For a part of each day it thawed, but not 
enough to prove a real handicap. 

Nothing had been heard from Thomas. It 


RAN BLAIR ON GUARD 


211 


seemed as if he really believed that the cut was 
so far below the minimum that there was no 
Chance of O’Day’s catching up, even with the 
new men he had imported. 

Ran Blair, however, was doubtful of this and 
suggested that someone ought to go up and 
guard the diversion dam they had built on the 
outside property. If that was destroyed every- 
thing was lost, and a stick of dynamite would 
easily do the job. This seemed to be only 
common prudence, so each night Nils, Pierre, 
Blair and Jerry took turns at the job. But 
nothing happened and everything went smoothly, 
almost too smoothly. 

At last came what they had feared for so 
long a time — the soft warm rain which would 
melt snow and ice so much faster than the 
hottest sun. 

The night before it started, great heavy clouds 
banked up in the sky and Penny shook his head 
sadly. 

‘‘ She^s a-comin^ lads. You listen to oV 
Penny: spring is a-comin’ fast!” 

And so it proved. At first there were flakes 
of snow mixed with the drops, but soon they 


212 JERRY KING 

ceased and a steady, dreary drizzle clothed the 
woods in a gray cloud. 

“How do we stand, Jerry?” asked O’Day 
anxiously, coming on the boy as he figured the 
total number of feet cut. 

About six more days will put us safe,” was 
the ans wer. “ Do you think we’ll have them? ” 

“ I don’t know. It’s just a chance,” the man 
replied, starting for the door. “ Pierre will 
have to hüstle those poor devils even more ! ” 

The work done the next few days was almost 
beyond belief. The men seemed to take it as 
an insult that the rain had come so soon, and 
they showed their anger by laboring like fiends. 
Out in the woods Penny heated coffee over a 
fire he coaxed to burn in spite of the rain and 
carried it around to the weary men. Everyone 
did his part and more. Jerry was proud of 
his gang and O’Day was proud of him. 

Pierre was too busy to be proud of anything 
or anybody. He seemed to be everywhere, 
urging, driving and lending a hand when a hand 
was needed. 

The rain kept falling steadily, drenching the 
men to their skins. Here and there patches 


RAN BLAIR ON GUARD 


213 


of dark earth showed through the snow and the 
ice over the little brooks was getting rotten 
and beginning to break. 

Snatching a moment from his scaling, Jerry 
went down to the big dam they had built and 
found that the water was already collecting. 

For two days more they worked at this mad 
pace. The following morning Jerry raised a 
shout as he straightened up from scaling a log. 

“ We’ve done it, men, weVe done it!” 

A great cry of jubilation went up from the 
men. They had worked like mad but the work 
had not been in vain. The log that Jerry had 
last branded marked the finish of the race. 
Against time and all sorts of odds the four 
million feet had been cut! 

But the moment’s triumph was cut short by 
Pierre. 

“ Hurry up ! Back to your work, my lads. 
Maybeso we lose some logs before they arrive 
at the mill, therefore we must have more for to 
take their place. Hurry ! ” 

Tired and weary as they were, the men made 
no complaint and soon the scene was again all 
activity. 


214 JERRY KING 

That night, when they trooped back to camp, 
they found a great dinner awaiting them. Link 
O’Day had told old Penny that he could have 
anything he wanted from the van and the cook 
had taken him at his word and had piled the 
long table with the dishes he had made. After- 
wards there was free tobacco and a new pipe 
for everyone. The only one to miss it was 
Blair, whose turn it was to guard the diversion 
dam. 

Link and Jerry had come to the mess shanty 
and O’Day had made a little speech of thanks 
and announced the extra sum of money that 
would be added to each man’s wages when the 
logs had reached the mill. 

It was a scene of high good humor and just 
as everybody was feeling particularly happy, 
the door flew open and Ran Blair staggered in. 

He was a terrible sight. Blood was Stream- 
ing from a cut in his face. 

They — they have broken our — our dam ! ” 

he managed to say. ‘‘ I got — got away ” 

and with this he slumped to the floor. 

*‘Come on, men,” cried O’Day. ‘‘That will 
have to be fixed right now. Who’ll come ? ” 


RAN BLAIR ON GUARD 


215 


There was an answering roar from the whole 
crowd. Jerry had picked Blair up and carried 
him into the bunkhouse. With Penny’s help he 
got the clothes off the unconscious boy and then 
attended to the cut as well as he could. He was 
relieved to find that it was only a slight wound. 
A few moments later, Blair came to. 

“ Gee, I must have passed out,” were his first 
words. 

‘‘ I should think you did,” said Jerry. “ You 
had a right to after what must have happened 
to you. Don’t teil me now; you ought not to 
talk! ” 

I’m — I’m all right,” said the other weakly. 
“Did — have they gone to fix things up?” 

“Sure, the whole bunch of them ” 

“And you didn’t go?” 

“ Can’t you see I’m right here? ” 

“ You stayed to look after me? ” 

“ Well, somebody had to fix you up,” defended 
Jerry. He had wanted to go, to take his part 
in the repairing of the damage, but he wasn’t 
going to let Blair know it. 

“ You’re a good chap, Jerry, and you’ve done 
a lot for me.” 


216 . JERRY KING 

Rats,” Jerry jeered. “ I haven’t done any- 
thing.” 

“ But I must teil you what happened.” 

“ It can wait.” 

“No, I want to teil it now. I was trying to 
keep out of the wind behind a big old fir tree 
right dose to the dam, when I saw a couple 
of shadows come out of the woods on the other 
side of the gully. At first I thought it might 
be somebody from the camp, but it was not long 
before I knew they were up to some mischief.” 

“Dynamite?” asked Jerry. 

“ No, they only had peavies and crowbars. 
You know we built the dam at night and it’s 
no better made than it ought to be. Besides, 
they figured they had all night to do their job — 
they didn’t know anybody was on guard.” 

“ Didn’t you shoot over their heads? You 
had the rifle along, didn’t you?” 

“ The trigger jammed on me and it was no 
use. I had to try something eise ” 

“ What? ” 

“ Oh, I thought I might be able to scare ’em 
off, so I sneaked out on the dam and jumped 
down on them. But it was no good ; they caught 


RAN BLAIR ON GUARD 


217 


me and tied me up. The worst of it was I 
had to watch them tear down our work without 
being able to do anything.” 

'‘But how did you get away?” 

“ They hadn’t tied me very tight. I hope the 
gang will be able to fix things up. The water 
was flying pretty lively when I went on watch ! ” 

There was nothing to do except wait and hope 
for the best. One thing at least had come out 
of the night’s experience and that was the fact 
that Ran Blair had proved his grit. Jerry sat 
by the boy he had befriended as he dozed away 
the hours before the men came back, and thought 
of the great change that had taken place. From 
a shifty, cowardly sneak, Blair had become a 
man! 

Over half the night had passed when the gang 
trooped in, utterly weary but happy. 

“Did you fix it?” asked Jerry of the first 
comer. 

“ Sure we did. What did you think we went 
out for ? ” 

Blair heard the answer, heaved a great sigh 
of relief, and muttered: 

'' Now, I can go to sleep.” 


CHAPTER XVIII 


THE DRIVE 

When he was sure that Ran Blair had dropped 
off into a real, health-giving sleep, Jerry turned 
to find that O’Day was waiting for him. 

“He’s all right? Not badly hurt?*’ was the 
whispered question. 

“ I think he will be out on the job in the 
morning,” replied the boy as he walked to the 
door with his friend. 

“Good! He certainly did a good job for us 
to-night. Now, you can turn in ” 

“Not yet!” Jerry exclaimed. “ I’ve got to 
talk to you before hitting the hay. Let’s go 

to the Office. But just a jiffy Someone 

is watching the dam?” 

“You bet! Both the diversion and the big 
one. 

“ I knew you’d think of it but I wanted to be 
sure.” 


218 


THE DRIVE 219 

When they reached the office, O’Day asked 
what was on the boy’s mind. 

WeVe got to get those logs moving quick. 
Thomas knows now what we’re up to and he 
won’t rest until he finds some way of bothering 
US. I only wish there would be enough water 
to-morrow to float our logs ! ” 

“ I’m afraid that won’t happen,” returned 
O’Day. It might have if the dam hadn’t been 
monkeyed with to-night. Somehow, I think it 
will be a couple of days before we get going.” 

And Thomas will be up to something before 
then.” 

Easy there, Jerry. Perhaps it’s not as bad 
as you think. Doesn’t it seem possible that 
the men who caught Blair last night will report 
that they did their work and that it will satisfy 
Thomas? ” 

“ Maybe, but he knows we will rebuild it, even 
if he can’t figure that we have done it so quickly. 
He’s up to something eise, I bet.” 

“ Well, we’ll have to take our chance,” said 
the man slowly. ‘‘ I don’t think we can do much 
good worrying about it. Get olf to bed ; perhaps 
things will be better to-morrow.” 


220 JERRY KING 

But in the morning the Situation was un- 
changed. There seemed to be but little more 
water flowing around the logs. 

Pierre put the men back to cutting but they 
worked listlessly, with one eye on the stage of 
the stream. 

The one patch of brightness that made the 
day at all bearable was the way in which the 
men greeted Blair when he came out on the 
job. His head was bandaged and he looked 
white but insisted on tackling his work. 

Overnight the boy had become reinstated in 
the camp’s respect. Now he was one of them 
and they called cheery greetings to him and 
included him in their jokes. There seemed to 
be no reserve in their manner; what Blair had 
done the night before had convinced them of 
his complete reformation. 

Jerry had gone to the van at lunch time and 
had settled to his accounts when Blair ran in. 

Come on — quick ! ” he cried. “ The water’s 
rising! Mr. O’Day sent me to teil you.” 

In a jiffy the two boys were making their 
way back to the work. 

*‘Just after you left,” Ran panted, “a wave 


THE DRIVE 


221 


seemed to come down the valley. Already some 
of the logs are moving — what do you suppose 
made it happen?” 

“ The only thing I can think of is that the 
ice went out on a pretty big stream up country 
and the water has just got here. That might 
account for the suddenness of it — Hooray ! ” 
Jerry broke off as he came in sight of the 
stream. “ They are floating, Ran, they are, for 
a fact!” 

It was true. Some of the logs at the edge of 
the tangle were dipping and rolling uncertainly. 
Then one would free itself from the jam and 
slowly, hesitatingly, Start towards the dam a 
mile below. 

The boys broke into a run and a moment 
later stood beside O’Day, who was watching 
with fascinated eyes the boys’ plan work out. 

“It’s happened!” exulted Jerry. “Twenty- 
four hours and there won’t be a stick here — 
they’ll all be down at our dam. Then we’ll have 
won ! ” 

O’Day smiled, Looks that way all right, 
but I’d not be too sure, Something might 
happen ” 


222 JERRY KING 

And just then something did! 

Over the hill from the direction of the diver- 
sion dam came a running figure. It was one 
of the men who had been left there on guard. 
When he got within shouting distance he yelled 
at the top of his lungs. Jerry did not catch 
the words but it was clear that Pierre Lavin 
had, for he in his turn raised a great cry. 

“To the dam, my braves. Quick! quick! and 
bring your axes, your hooks ! Come on ! ” 

Jerry, O’Day and Blair had already started, 
so they did not see the forest empty itself of 
the men. They came yelling and laughing. 
They knew from what Pierre had said that a 
fight was in the wind and it made them happy. 

The trio was first at the dam. They found 
Hank Tenny, a driver, holding down the Situa- 
tion. He had the rifle that had gone back on 
Blair the night before and with it was holding 
at bay a mass of men who were strangers. 

“ Not a Step further, my jolly bunch o’ 
pirates,” he was saying, “ or Pli give ye a taste 
o’ what’s in this little cannon. When the boss 
comes, ye can talk. Pm in no humor for it 
meself ! ” 


THE DRIVE 


223 


If the Situation had not been so serious, it 
would have been funny how easily the big Irish- 
man held the mob at bay. 

“ We’ve got to hold the dam another day at 

any cost! ” panted Jerry. “ I ” 

“Wait here tili our bunch comes up,” Blair 
suggested. They had stopped for consultation 
behind some brush, from which point of vantage 
they could see and hear but not be seen. 

“ No ! ” O’Day said firmly. “ I’m going out 
to talk to them. This is my funeral and I don’t 

want you or any of my bunch to get hurt ” 

“ You’ll have a fine chance keeping the gang 
out of this,” cried Jerry. “Listen to them 
Corning ! ” And with this he slipped away from 
his companions. 

The next moment the battle of the dam was 
in full swing. Led by their little foreman, 
Camp Twenty-nine proceeded to wade into the 
mob of strangers who had come to capture their 
dam, let the water loose, and thereby cheat Boss 
Jerry out of the success for which he had worked 
so hard. That it would also mean that their 
bonus would be lost too, was an added incentive 
to brave deeds. 


224 JERRY KING 

Thomas had sent up more than enough men 
to match those in O’Day’s camp and after the 
first surprise they began to hold their own and 
have perhaps just a little the better of the scrap. 

Blair and O’Day had been swept into the 
melee and had no time to notice that Jerry was 
gone. 

It was a glorious fight, a fight that is told 
over and over again in the bunkhouses up there 
of a winter’s evening. Cant hooks whistled 
through the air like battle-axes and fists flew as 
thick as hailstones. 

Pierre encouraged his men with all the power 
of his lungs, but he feit that they were being 
pushed back; that Step by Step they were losing 
ground. He would not admit defeat and only 
fought the harder; but his men were not so 
brave. When they feit the tide of battle turn 
against them, the steam behind their blows 
evaporated and they were ready to cry quits. 

Thomas’s men were already raising shouts of 
victory when something happened to cut them 
short. Someone was attacking them from the 
rear! 

It was Jerry. He had stopped a handful of 


THE DRIVE 


225 


the men as they came over the hill and had led 
them around behind the enemy. Caught between 
two fires and not knowing how great was the 
relieving force, they hesitated for a moment and 
in that moment they were lost, for Pierre’s men, 
heartened by the reinforcements, fought with 
renewed fury. 

Soon the mob broke and ran. The fight was 
over and for the moment the dam was safe. 

It was surprising how few serious injuries 
had been sustained in spite of the ferocity of 
the fight. Jerry put it down to the heavy clothes 
the men wore and the high physical development 
of all of them. There were many eyes that 
would be black in the morning and noses that 
would be very sore, but from present reports, 
everybody would be on the job. 

The men were enthusiastic about their success 
and promised to deal the same with anyone eise 
that tried that sort of game on them again. 
Link O’Day said very little but it was easy to 
see the pride he feit in his men. 

“That was better than talking, wasn’t it?” 
laughed Jerry as he came up to his friend. 
“ We sure did ’em up brown ! ” 


226 JERRY KING 

“ Yes,” O’Day agreed, “ it worked this time. 
But I guess we’re in for some talking anyhow. 
Look who’s Corning.” 

Jerry turned and saw a very angry man 
approaching. It was Thomas. 

“ I notice he kept safely hid behind a tree 
while any scrapping was going on,” said Jerry 
disgustedly. 

Thomas made no attempt to disguise his feel- 
ings as he stamped up to the group. His face 
was distorted with fury and he had difficulty 
in getting his words out. 

‘‘You — you!” he spluttered. “This — this 
is my land, d’ye hear? My land! This dam, 
I — I want it off ” 

“Yes?” said O’Day calmly. “When?” 

“Now! At — at once, d’ye hear?” 

“ Is that why you sent up that gang of rough- 
necks ? ” 

“ ril — ril have the law on you ! ” shouted 
Thomas, paying no attention to the question 
that had gone before. 

“Look here, Thomas,” Link O’Day said; 
“ you know as well as I do that there’s mighty 
little law up here in the woods. If you think 


THE DRIVE 


227 


that you can bluff us out of here you are a mile 
off the track. The next man that monkeys with 
the dam will get shot, remember that. If there 
was anything in that law what was the use 
of your armyf ” 

As there did not seem to be any answer to 
this last shot, O’Day turned and gave the Orders 
that would distribute his men, some to guard 
the dam, behind which the water was rising 
steadily, and the others to go back and roll the 
logs into the stream. 

For a moment or two longer Thomas stood his 
ground and then with muttered threats, strode 
away in the direction from which he had come. 
Just at the edge of the Clearing he turned and 
shook his fist at the dam. Then he disappeared. 

“ That’s the end of Thomas,” laughed Blair, 
Corning up to Jerry. “ He knows when he’s 
licked.” 

“ Fm not so sure about that,” was the answer. 
“ I’ve got a full-sized hunch that he’s not fin- 
ished yet. I’d like to know what he’s doping out 
right now.” 

‘‘ Don’t lose any sleep over it,” Blair advised 
optimisticaliy. The thing to worry about now 


228 JERRY KING 

is getting the logs into the stream. Come on, 
let’s see what’s doing. Boss O’Day has left 
enough men here to take care of a surprise 
attack.” 

Back in the valley the boys found that every- 
body had turned cant hook men and were rolling 
the logs into the stream, or into such positions 
that the water would lift them when it rose. 
Already there was a marked shrinkage in the 
jumble of timber. 

“ Every one of these logs will be gone this 
time to-morrow/’ shouted Pierre when they 
came near him. “ We’re going to beat Thomas 
sure, just like we beat his men. Hoopla, work, 
you lumberjacks, work!” 

When dusk feil, a great fire was started on 
the bank and supper was eaten around it. The 
men would not quit even if Pierre had allowed it. 

“ It is the drive/^ he explained to O’Day. 
“ The men, they do not expect to sleep on the 
drive. Sure thing. The water maybeso he 
stops quick, so nobody has got time for to 
sleep.” 

So all night long the logs were dropped into 
the ever-rising stream and started on their jour- 


THE DRIVE 


229 


ney, which would end only when the great gang 
saws would transform them into planks. Songs 
helped the men’s tired muscles to respond to the 
extra demand made upon them. A great can 
of coffee always boiled on the fire and it was 
so much in demand that old Penny was almost 
cheerful. 

When the dawn broke at last there were few 
logs left to be entrusted to the stream, which 
by now was a roaring flood. Noon saw the last 
of them bobbing and ducking along to the spread 
of water backed up by the dam. 

Thomas can have his old dam now ! ” cried 
Jerry. “ We’ve had all we wanted of it.” 

“ Not quite,” answered Blair. “ We’ll want 
all the water we can get until the logs are past 
our dam.” 

“ Right you are, old boy; I hadn’t thought of 
that.” 

The boys were Standing looking over the great 
pond which their dam had made. The countless 
logs floated so dose together that hardly any 
water was visible. Just then they heard a shout. 
It was Link O’Day calling Jerry. They made 
their way to him as quickly as possible. 


230 JERRY KING 

“ Well, Jerry, you got the logs all right, but 
what are you going to do with ’em now ? 

“ Why — why, send them along to the rail- 
road, of course,” answered the boy, confused. 

How? You’ve built a good dam but I can’t 
see that you put in any sluice gate. Are we 
going to stop here forever ? ” 

In a flash Jerry saw what had happened and 
the knowledge that he had made a mistake was 
terrible. 

“I — I never thought of that,” he stammered. 

“ Somehow, I just thought of the dam ” 

He stopped, for he had been thinking hard as 
he talked. “ Just a minute. Link, just a minute. 
I know a way out.” 

He did not see the twinkle in O’Day’s eyes, 
so he went on as earnestly as he had started. 

“We’ll blow it Up. Dam, logs, and every- 
thing. There’s powder enough in the van ” 

“ I knew you’d think of it,” laughed the man, 
*‘but I wanted to scare you. I sent for the 
powder and it’s here now. Pierre is below the 

dam setting the charges this minute Here, 

where are you going? ” for he was speaking to 
Jerry’s back. 


THE DRIVE 


231 


No answer came from Jerry, so they followed 
as quickly as they could. When they reached 
the edge of the dam they saw the boy had 
almost caught up with Pierre. When he did, 
they witnessed a rapid argument which Jerry 
won. 

A moment later O’Day realized what Jerry 
was Up to and he shouted a command for him 
to stop, to go back. Either the boy did not or 
would not hear, for he stooped and lighted the 
fuse that Pierre had just set. Then, running 
swiftly, he came to the next, touched it and was 
off like the wind. Five times he stopped, leav- 
ing behind him hissing snakes of fire. Then 
with a bound he was up the bank and pulling 
O’Day and Blair back to the trees and safety. 

Pierre had cut his fuses skillfully, for hardly 
were they screened by the tree trunks when one 
mighty explosion tore the air into shreds. All 
five charges had gone off at the same instant. 


CHAPTER XIX 


A GAME LOSER 

For a moment it was impossible to teil what 
had been accomplished. The smoke was dense 
over the place where the dam had been and 
the noise of the explosion had been so great 
that other sounds did not exist for a moment. 
Then, too, fragments of splintered wood began 
to crash down through the trees. These bits 
of the dam had been thrown high in the air 
and were now coming down like gigantic 
hailstones. 

Luckily no one happened to be in the way 
of these missiles and the gang soon assembled 
intact on the bank to watch the logs fly by on 
the flood water. 

O’Day’s reproof of Jerry for having taken 
on the dangerous job of touching off the powder 
was forgotten in the excitement of success. 
Everyone was talking and no one was listening 
232 


A GAME LOSER 


233 


to his neighbor. The general belief was that 
success had finally been won, and they were in 
a mood to talk about it. 

Pierre and a few of the men who had 
had experience in river drives, went out on the 
floating logs, leaping from one to another with 
the agility of cats. It was their job to see that 
no jams occurred and that all the logs were 
kept moving. This was the first time Jerry had 
ever seen logs ridden and it was fascinating. 
Every moment Pierre seemed about to lose his 
balance and then he would save himself by 
jumping to another log, give a quick push with 
his cant hook to some slow sister of a timber 
and be ofif, skipping over the tangle of floating 
logs with the certainty and grace of a dancing 
master. 

Other men started to scour the banks, rolling 
the stranded logs into the fast water. 

Come on, let’s go down to the railroad,” 
suggested Ran Blair. ** The first of ^em ought 
to be there by now.” 

They were. The wall of water that had 
leaped from behind the blown-up dam had car- 
ried its great bürden with it and now it was 


234 JERRY KING 

rushing under the boom chain that held the logs 
in place. 

While the cutting was still going on, the 
blacksmith had manufactured this boom. It 
was a long string of logs, held together by the 
links of a strong chain. Each end of this had 
been securely anchored far on either side of 
the river bed. Now it proved its worth, for 
it held the logs in place but let the water flow on. 

As they watched they could hear it creak 
and groan under the pressure it had to bear. 

Soon the first rush was over and the logs 
were coming to join their comrades in ones 
and twos. Occasionally more would float in 
a bunch around the corner. To O’Day and 
Jerry each log meant the completion of the job, 
that success had been won in spite of everything. 

I guess there’s no argument now about your 
having done the trick,’’ said Blair, with a grin. 
“ There’s one thing I’d like to see ” 

“ What? » asked Jerry. “ Fll bite.” 

“ Thomas’ face. I’ll bet he’s sore. He’s taken 
enough trouble trying to beat you out of what 
is yours, Boss O’Day, to make a fortune 
honestly.” 



Every moment Pierre seemed about to lose bis bal- 
ance and then he would save himself by jumping to 
another log. 



A GAME LOSER 


235 


“I’m sorry for him,” was O’Day’s answer. 
“ It’s bad stuff to pack a grudge. I never found 
it got you anywheres/’ 

“ It doesn’t,” Blair became serious suddenly. 
"^I’ve learned that and it’s Jerry here who’s 
taught me ” 

“ Shut up,” Jerry tried to head the otHer 
boy off. 

“ I won’t! Boss O’Day, I’ll bet he never told 
you just what sort of a rotten puppy I was 
until he took me in hand. Did he?” 

I don’t remember ” 

'' Of course you don’t. He never opened his 
mouth. But I’m going to teil you now.” 

To Jerry King’s great embarrassment, Blair 
related the whole story, going back even to the 
fight when they were all with the Forestry 
Service. 

When he had finished, O’Day looked at Jerry. 

“ Good boy,” he said quietly. Before any- 
thing more could be said, Jerry started the dis- 
cussion off towards a different and less personal 
subject. 

By the next day the whole cut had been floated 
down and lay snug behind the boom. The next 


236 JERRY KING 

Operation was to load the logs on the cars and 
ship them to the mill. 

“A good part of this shipping will be your 
work,” said O’Day to Jerry, “so you might 
just as well come down to Pentico with me and 
see about getting the truck cars shunted in 
here.” 

They caught the shoo>fly and changed to the 
local that finally dropped them in the town where 
Thomas had his mill. 

“ As soon as I see if there’s anything for me 
at the postoffice we’ll drill right up to Thomas’s 
Office,” O’Day remarked as they left the Station. 

“Thomas’s office?” Jerry echoed, puzzled. 
“ But, Link, what business have we got to do 
with Thomas until we put the timber down in 
his yard?” 

“We’ve got to see about the cars to load it 
on. It’s his railroad.” 

The boy could hardly believe his ears. Some- 
how he had never for a moment thought of who 
owned the logging road. 

“Have you — have you ” He stuttered 

in his excitement — “did you make some deal 
with Thomas to carry out our logs ? ” 


A GAME LOSER 237 

Link O’Day suddenly saw what Jerry was 
driving at. 

“ Sure. He said I could use the rail- 
road ” 

“ Did you have it in writing? ” 

“ I don’t — don’t remember,” confessed the 
man. “ I don’t think so. Thomas seemed so 
decent and, as the railroad was the only way 
to get the stuff out, I didn’t think there was any 
question about it. No, there wasn’t anything 
in writing about it. Great guns, what a locoed 
mule I was ! ” 

“ It looks rotten for us,” admitted Jerry. 

“ I’ll never forgive myself if this busts up 
everything at the last minute, and makes all our 
work go for nothing. It will be my fault alone.” 

“ We’re not licked yet. Maybe Thomas won’t 
think of this stunt. Don’t let’s borrow trouble. 
Link.” 

These were brave words but in reality Jerry 
was far from believing them himself. His 
object was to hearten the man who had been 
so good to him and had given him a real chance 
to make good. Down in his heart the boy was 
certain that the only reason Thomas had let 


238 JERRY KING 

them go on with their drive was that he had 
retained this last trump card and meant to 
play it. 

“ IVe got to know what’s up quick ! ” O’Day 
cried. “We’ll let the mail wait until we find 
out. Come along/' and he stepped out hurriedly 
down the Street towards the mill. 

Jerry followed and a few moments later they 
were in the office where the boy had first seen 
the man who had taken so much trouble to 
ruin them. The same old bookkeeper was driv- 
ing his pen across the great ledger — except 
that the stove was not so red, nothing was 
changed. 

Thomas came in a moment later. The boy 
had expected him to be surly and resentful of 
the treatment that had been given him at the 
dam. The fact that he had been beaten in that 
encounter could not have helped but make him 
furious. 

But Jerry could discover no signs of this 
expected attitude when the lumberman saw who 
was waiting for him. He advanced, smiling, 
to greet O’Day. The boy was amazed and 
puzzled at the same time. It was not natural 


A GAME LOSER 239 

*— there must be something underneath this, 
was what he thought. 

“ Well, well,” boomed Thomas. “ Come down 
to see me, have you, O’Day? Forgot our little 
squabble? That’s right. So have I. You beat 
me fair and square. I don’t hold any grudge. 
Not me. Not my style. Feiler licks me, all 
right. When I am lucky enough to lick a feiler, 
it’s all right too.” 

O’Day was so astonished that he let this line 
of talk flow on and on. At last he managed 
to say: 

“ I’m sure glad you feel that way about it. 
I’m willing to let bygones be bygones.” 

I knew you would. Always liked you, 
O’Day, always. Ha-ha! Had to try to get 
back at you for that little muss we got into. 
You understand. Pride and so forth, ha-ha! 
Didn’t get back, so everything is off. Forget 
it. That right, boy? ” turning to Jerry, who had 
been listening with all his ears to this astound- 
ing conversation. 

‘‘Why — why — sure, if — if you mean it,” 
he stammered. 

Mean it? Of course. Just a little game. 


240 JERRY KING 

that other. That’s all. But come now; what’s 
on your mind this morning, O’Day?” 

“ My timber is at the railroad. I want cars 
to ship it down here to you. When can I have 
them?” 

O’Day said this in as matter o£ fact way as 
possible. He did not want Thomas to think 
there was any doubt in his mind about his right 
to have the cars. Realizing what a* strain O’Day 
was under, Jerry feit he had done as well as 
could be expected. Thomas answered without 
hesitation. 

“Cars? Sure you can have ’em. When? 
Possibly by day after to-morrow. You’ll need 
how many? ” 

“ I don’t know. We’ve scaled a little over 
four million 

“There’s nearly four and a half, I think,” 
put in Jerry. “ I scaled scant so that we’d be 
on the safe side.” 

“Doesn’t matter. I’H switch in trucks until 
you load it all up. Leave it to me. I’H fix it. 
Don’t want to have you say Thomas wasn’t a 
good loser ! ” 

“ I’m obliged,” said O’Day simply, as he and 


A GAME LOSER 


241 


Jerry started for the door. “ But I don’t think 
you will lose much, for that’s fine stuff we cut 
Up there.” 

“ I know it. You’re right. Quite right. I 
won’t lose much. Good-bye ! ” 

When Link and Jerry were again on the 
Street, the man remarked in a relieved tone. 

“ Thomas sure did the handsome thing, didn’t 
he?’’ 

I don’t know,” slowly answered Jerry. 

(t j >} 

“ What more could he do? Didn’t he say 
he was licked and willing to take his licking 
like a man ? ” 

“ But, Link, that fellow would say anything 
to gain his ends. I never did trust him and 
I never will. He’s got something up his 
sleeve ” 

“ What?” 

“ I don’t know,” confessed Jerry. “ It’s just 
that I’m afraid of him in spite of all his talk. 
If he really was beaten, I think I’d distrust him 
still. But as it is he isn’t licked at all.” 

“How do you mean?” 

“ What we were talking about before we saw 


242 JERRY KING 

him. If he wants to he can delay sending us 
cars until doomsday ! ” 

“ You’re bugs about Thomas,” O’Day laughed. 
“Teil me this: Didn’t he say before witnesses 
that we could have cars? He did. And isn’t 
that a good contract? It is. Fve answered 
your fears, so don’t worry. Thomas is probably 
a good sort at bottom. You told me a while ago 
not to borrow trouble. Take your own advice.” 

They had come to the postoffice while they 
had been talking. O’Day went to the window 
for the mail. A moment later he joined his 
companion, two or three letters in his hand. 

“ One from Thad Holman,” he remarked, 
tearing open the envelope. “ Wonder what he’s 
got to say.” 

As he read, a look of dismay and worry came 
over his face, and when he had finished he 
turned to Jerry. 

“ Of all the rotten luck! Thad’s sick. He 
says he needs me and wants me to come to 
him ” 

“Now?” Jerry exclaimed. “We need and 
want you here. Link. Why, anything might 
happen.” 


A GAME LOSER 


243 


“ I know it, but I reckon Thad Holman has 
a right to ask anything he likes of me. I’ll 
have to go, Jerry, there’s no two ways about it.” 

But, Link,” Jerry protested, seeing in his 
mind’s eye the success or failure of the job 
resting on O’Day’s being at hand to tackle any 
emergency. “You can't go! We’ll get into a 
box somehow and all the winter’s work will go 
Up the spout. We’ll be ruined ! ” 

The man looked at Jerry with serious eyes. 

“Jerry, my boy, there are some things that 
are worth more than success. One of them is 
repaying your obligations. Old Thad Holman 
has done things for me that I’ll never be able 
to repay in full. If he’s sick and wants me, 
I’ll go to him if I never make another nickel in 
my life ! ” 

In a flash Jerry saw his mistake. 

“ I’m sorry. Link. I’m a fool kid. You’re 
dead right. I — I just couldn’t get the job out 
of my mind for a minute. It seemed such rotten 
luck to lose out when we are so near the finish. 
You must go.” 

“I’ll get back as soon as I can. It won’t 
take more than ten days at the outside.” He 


244 


JERRY KING 

looked at his watch. “ Fm going to hop on the 
first train without going back to camp. It’s 
due here in half an hour. Come on to the bank 
while I get some money.” 

O’Day spent the time before the train left 
in going over with Jerry the details of the job. 

“ You’ll have to be boss again, Jerry. If you 
do as well as you did the last time, it will be 
a good thing for the job that Fve got to go.” 

The boy flushed under this praise. 

“ It was because the gang was such a good 
bunch. I didn’t do much,” he answered. But 
Fm going to do my best ” 

“ I know you will. Fve got all the' confi- 
dence in the world that you will make good 
again.’^ 

At last the train puffed into the Station and 
it was time for O’Day to climb on board. 

“ Good-bye,” he said. “ Every thing is going 
to be all right. But it makes me go off a heap 
easier to know that Thomas isn’t going to kick 
up a row about carrying our logs over his 
railroad. If that hadn’t been fixed Fd have 
worried a lot. Good-bye.” 

Jerry stood watching the train out of sight. 


A GAME LOSER 245 

As much as he wanted to he could not believe 
that O’Day was right in trusting Thomas. He 
had a vague feeling of things being wrong — 
of something about to happen. Thomas was at 
the back of it, he was sure. But what was 
the use of worrying? Whatever was in the 
wind, would happen in spite of anything he 
could see to do. 


CHAPTER XX 


THOMAS SHOWS HIS HAND 

The next day, Jerry King put the whole gang 
to dragging the logs out of the water into posi- 
tions from which they could easily be loaded 
into the cars when they came. Skidways had 
been built and everything was in readiness for 
loading. 

Pierre Lavin and Blair had been told of 
what had happened in Thomas’s office and their 
comments were not reassuring to Jerry. Both 
thought as he did, that Thomas had not accepted 
defeat so easily, that this move had been made 
only to conceal something much deeper. 

Huh, me, I don’t think a snake change his 
skin this time of year. This kind of snake, 
maybeso, he never change his skin.’^ 

Ran Blair was equally certain that some sort 
of unexpected trouble was due to arrive, but 
could not name it. His guess was that the cars 
246 


THOMAS SHOWS HIS HAND 247 


would not come, that Thomas would starve 
them out. 

Therefore there was a great surprise in störe 
for all three when the next morning, as the 
lumberman had said was possible, they found a 
train of empty lumber trucks strung out on 
the track along their piles of logs. 

I guess we were all wrong and Link O’Day 
was right/’ commented Jerry, as they watched 
the men load the cars. “Thomas must have 
got religion.” 

Pierre shook his head doubtfully. 

“I don’t know. Me, I think it is funny.” 

“ It looks queer to me too,” said Blair. 
“Thomas seems too anxious to do the right 
thing. What ts he up to?” 

But no one could answer that question. 

“Well, fellows, maybe you are right, but if 
we can’t dope out what’s up it’s a sure thing 
we can’t take Steps to head it off. As far as 
I can see, the only thing to do is to load those 
cars and trust to luck.” 

Nobody could make any counter Suggestion, 
so the work went ahead. Pierre Lavin had 
rigged up several ingenious devices which hur- 


248 JERRY KING 

ried the loading a lot, for they were able to 
use horse power as well as man power. The 
men were in holiday spirit; the end of their 
long winter’s work seemed to be in sight and 
they were thinking of the good times they would 
have blowing in their wages. By the middle 
of the next morning each truck had been piled 
with all the logs it would carry safely. 

“ Nothing more to do now, Boss Jerry,” 
reported Pierre, “ but for to wait for that 
shoo-fly engine.” 

All right, but while you’re waiting pull 
some more logs from the river.” 

It was not until late in the afternoon that a 
logging locomotive came puffing up the track 
with a String of empties rattling behind. 

There she comes ! ” yelled Blair. “ We’ve 
Started now I guess.” 

When the train came to a stop a familiär 
figure dropped out of the engine cab. 

Jerry had a sinking feeling around the pit 
of his stomach as he recognized the man who 
was walking towards them as Thomas. 

I wonder what he’s doing up here,” he 
muttered to himself. 


THOMAS SHOWS HIS HAND 249 


I’ll be jiggered if I know,” Blair answered, 
having overheard. “ But TU bet it isn’t any 
birthday present he’s bringing.” 

Thomas waved a genial hand in greeting. 

'' Where’s O’Day? ” he wanted to know. “ I’d 
like to see him.” 

Jerry explained the boss’s absence. 

'‘Well, well. Sorry to hear that. Sorry. 
But who’s in Charge here? You were last 
time ” 

“ I am now,” returned the boy shortly. 
“What can I do?” 

The lumberman looked the young boss up 
and down. 

“ Don’t know. What can you do ? Make a 
deal O’Day will stand behind?” 

This was puzzling to Jerry. He could not 
imagine what Thomas was driving at. He 
thought for a moment and then answered — 

“ I don’t know of any deal that has to be 
made, but I guess if I did Mr. O’Day would 
back me up.” 

“ I’ll teil you about the deal. It ain’t nothing 
much. Just about the rate for carrying out your 
timber over my road. Freight rate, you know.” 


250 JERRY KING 

“ What do you mean? The deal was that you 
would take out the logs for O’Day ” 

“ Surely. Quite right. I remember saying 
that. But at what price? I don’t remember 
that! Very important point too, ha-ha!” 

The cackle that went for a laugh with Thomas 
was unpleasant. A big burly man such as he 
was should have a big burly laugh, not a dry, 
clipped, mirthless rattle. 

“ Why didn’t you fix this up with Mr. O’Day 
when we were in your office? ” Jerry demanded, 
playing for time, for he realized that the thing 
he had feared and had not been able to foresee 
was about to be made clear to him. 

“ Forgot it. Clean as a whistle. Came here 
now just as soon as I thought of it!” 

Just when we’ve got a big bunch loaded ! ” 
Jerry shot out. “ Come on now, Thomas, what’s 
the game? I want to know.” 

“ Easy. Never lose your temper, young man. 
I always say, never lose your temper. It don’t 
get you anything. Besides, what do you mean 
by 'game’? No game. Just business ” 

Jerry feit that he was being played with, 
that Thomas was playing with him as a cat does 


THOMAS SHOWS HIS HAND 251 

with a mouse. He boiled inside with fury and 
desperation. 

What is this business?” 

You have logs. I have a railroad. You 
want to send your logs to the mill. All right. 

I’ll take ’em as I promised. But ” 

^‘But what?” 

IVe got to be paid. Engine burns coal. 
Wages got to be paid. Where’s money to come 
from? Freight, of course. Easy.” 

Jerry saw the whole thing in a flash. Thomas 
had no idea of reforming, of letting bygones 
be bygones, as he had said. The scene in the 
Office had only been staged in Order to let them 
struggle a little longer so that his revenge 
would be sweeter. However, there was just 
one Chance that Thomas was not entirely bad. 
If his terms for carry ing the timber were rea- 
sonable and fair, there would still be a little 
margin of profit. But the boy was sure that 
this was not going to happen even as he asked 
the question. 

How much do you want? ” 

The man’s smile became almost a sneer as he 
answered : 


252 JERRY KING 

Four dollars and a quarter a thousand ! ” 

Not for a second had Jerry imagined that the 
price would be as preposterous as this. For a 
moment he was speechless. 

But you are only paying us five dollars at 
the mill!” 

“ A very good price. Very good. Other con- 
tracts call for less, much less. Some as much 
as a dollar less.’" 

“ But four dollars and a quarter. That 
makes only seventy-five Cents to — to pay the 


“ Railroad’s an expensive thing. Very. Can’t 
do it for less. Sorry, but you see how it is.” 

I see how it is ! ” cried Jerry. “ I see that 
you are a thief and you ought to be run out 
of the woods.” 

'' Enough of that ! It’s my railroad. I’U 
Charge what I please. You don’t have to use 
it. Your logs can stay here and rot. You won’t 
get anything. Not even seventy-five cents.” He 
pulled a paper from his pocket. “ Here, sign 
this. If you do, I’H pull your timber out. Don’t 
and you’ll not move a log ! ” 

Jerry took the document and glanced at it. 


THOMAS SHOWS HIS HAND 253 


When he had finished he tore it into small pieces 
and let them drop to the ground. 

“ There’s your answer, you big hulk,” he 
cried. “ Keep your railroad. Fm not going to 
let you bluff me. Either you take out your logs 
or get out of here yourself. We’ll beat you 
yet!’^ 

Thomas looked at the boy surprised. 

“ Beat me ? ” he echoed. “ What can you do, 
you crazy kid?” 

“ Don’t worry about my being crazy or what 
I’ll do,” Jerry retorted. “ Beat it or Fll call the 
gang. I think they’ve got a sort of grudge 
against the person who started that fight at the 
dam. Hurry ! ” 

Thomas hesitated. He started to say some- 
thing, thought better of it, turned on his heel, 
and made off towards the engine. 

“ Well, it’s happened,” said Jerry to Blair, 
who had been Standing alongside him. 

“ Yes,” Ran returned, it has. But — 

but ” he stopped, looked at Jerry hesi- 

tatingly, and without a word ran after Thomas. 

“What in thunder is he up to?” thought 
Jerry, watching closely what was happening. 


254 JERRY KING 

He saw Blair catch up to the man and Start 
talking rapidly. Whatever he was saying 
seemed to upset Thomas more. He moved his 
arms and shouted. Jerry could not hear what 
he said but the tone was angry. Suddenly he 
saw Thomas quiet down, laugh and then slap 
Blair on the shoulder. Then the surprising 
thing happened. 

Without once looking back, Blair walked 
beside Thomas to the locomotive, climbed in 
and was carried from the camp. 

At first Jerry tried to find an explanation for 
Blair’s desertion. Perhaps he was carrying out 
some plan to help the work, and there had been 
no time to explain. It was all right, Jerry tried 
to teil himself, but nothing would down the 
horrible conviction that Ran Blair had deserted 
to the enemy. When he realized that Jerry was 
beaten without a doubt, he had gone over to the 
winning side. Right now, he was probably tell- 
ing Thomas a million and one details of the 
work, that the man wanted to know. 

Jerry hated himself for being willing to 
believe this of the boy who had done so many 
things for the dam. This was the one thing 


THOMAS SHOWS HIS HAND 255 


that he could hold onto in his struggling to save 
his opinion of Blair: that he had suffered and 
striven for the success of the work. That night 
at the dam and the Suggestion that made the 
dam possible, were proof that he had been 
going straight. It was unthinkable that he 
should be a traitor. 

But the facts had to be faced. Blair’s leaving 
was a small matter considering the predicament 
they were in regarding the logs. Here they 
were, stranded, with no visible means of getting 
them to the milk 

He had torn up Thomas’s contract without 
any real plan for the future. All he had known 
was that even if they went broke on the job it 
would be better to fail trying than to take the 
charity Thomas had offered when he proposed 
to leave them seventy-five Cents a thousand. 

While these thoughts went through his mind, 
Jerry had not moved from the spot where he 
had talked to Thomas. Now he started off to 
meet Pierre, who was coming towards him. 

“What’s the matter, Boss Jerry? Why has 
the shoo-fly gone away without our logs ? When 
is it coming back?” 


256 JERRY KING 

“ Never, I guess/’ was the answer. ‘‘ Thomas 
has shown his hand at last. You and Blair 
were right. Thomas wasn’t licked.” 

“ But — but what has happened?*' insisted 
the foreman. 

“ Looks like weTe finished/* said the boy 
wearily. “Thomas wants four dollars and a 
quarter a thousand to carry our stuff to the 
mill.” 

“What did you teil him?” 

“ I told him to get off the job or I’d have 
your husky lads help him off ! ” 

“That is very good,” cried Pierre, his eyes 
flashing. “The dog of a robber! Me, I think 
it serve him right.” 

“So do I, but what does it get us? We’re 
stuck, as far as I can see.” 

Pierre sobered down in a twinkling. He 
hadn’t thought of that angle of the mess. 

“ Do you think I should have taken Thomas’s 
terms?” Jerry asked. 

“ No ! Certainly not ! ” 

“ The men have money coming to them — the 
seventy-five Cents might pay it ” 

“ If any pig of a lumberjack tries for to 


THOMAS SHOWS HIS HAND 257 


collect that pay, first he is got to fight me ! But 
they won’t, Boss Jerry. Maybeso, they would 
everyone rather go without than see that 
Thomas get the best of you.” 

“I believe it/’ cried Jerry, “but they must 
be paid, anyway. But what will happen if the 
logs don’t go to the mill?” 

“ If they stay here until next year, they are 
no good; they rot quick. If that happens, 
Thomas, he will lose as well as you.’^ 

“That’s the first good news IVe heard to- 
day,” returned Jerry. “ I’d like to think he 
wasnT making anything out of us even if we 
have to lose.” 

“I understand. But, Boss Jerry, where did 
you send that young fellow, Blair? I see him 
go away with Thomas.” 

“I didn’t send him, Pierre; he left.” 

“Left?” 

“ Yes. I Started to say something and the 
next minute he was gone. Can you guess why? 
I can’t and it bothers me.” 

Pierre shrugged his shoulders. 

“ Maybeso he think Thomas can do more for 
him. What you think?” 


258 JERRY KING 

I wish I knew. He just can’t have played 
the traitor to us. That would be too rotten.” 

“ I don’t know, me,” was the doubtful reply. 
“ That fellow, he was no good once; maybeso 
he’s no good again.” 

“ I don’t believe it, that’s all there is to it. 
But, Pierre, isn’t there something we can do 
about our logs? Some way of beating Thomas 
yet?” 

Again Pierre shrugged his shoulders. 

“ Maybeso the good Lord will send a miracle. 

If a flood should come ” 

^ The Frenchman was treated to the sight of 
his young boss dancing wildly and throwing his 
cap in the air. 

“What’s the matter? You crazy?” he 
demanded. 

“ You said it, Pierre, you said it ! ” 

“Said what?” 

“ A flood. What about those old dams down 
the river? Remember I asked you about them 
one day? Why can’t we build a couple more 
between here and there and drive our logs? 
Why can’t we do that, teil me, why can’t we do 
that? ” 


THOMAS SHOWS HIS HAND 259 


“ Maybeso the flood water will go down 

before we can Start ” 

Maybe it will, but we won’t be any worse 
off than we are now, will we?” 

No-o-o,” was the grudging reply. 

“And maybe we might get through and if 
we did — can yöu see Thomas if we floated our 
four million and a half up to his mill? , Can 
you see the look on his face ! ” 

Pierre looked at Jerry steadily for a moment. 
Then a broad grin spread itself over his swarthy 
face. He had caught the boy’s enthusiasm. 

“ Boss Jerry,” he said solemnly, “ for to see 
that Pierre Lavin would drive those logs over 
the Rocky Mountains with no more than an 
inch of water for to float ’em!” 


CHAPTER XXI 
THE LAST PLAY 


The Chance that victory could be snatched out 
of almost certain defeat at this late hour was 
pretty slim, yet it gave Jerry and Pierre enough 
heart to go ahead with their plans. 

There did not seem much change in the level 
of the water coming down the river bed they 
had laid out for it and Jerry was o£ the opinion 
that should it stay that way until the first dam 
was completed, they would not have much 
trouble in getting the logs to move. 

The whole gang was put on the construction 
work and before the week was out it was done. 
The men had been told all that had happened 
and once more tackled the work given them to 
do with all their energy and enthusiasm. 

‘‘Maybeso we can let them go now,” sug- 
gested Pierre, meaning to unshackle the boom 
and free the logs. 


260 


THE LAST PLAY 


261 


“ Not yet, Pierre,” directed Jerry. I’ve got 
a plan I want to try out before we take a 
Chance on this drive. Keep the men busy on the 
second dam to-morrow. Pm going down to 
Pentico.” 

It showed the confidence that Pierre had in 
his young boss when he turned away without 
another word. What Jerry said was law and 
it did not have to be explained in Order to be 
put into effect. 

Jerry caught the shoo-fly that afternoon and 
spent the night riding in a day coach. This 
manner of traveling does not give much chance 
for sleep, so he had time to perfect the plan 
he had in mind. 

The case of Ran Blair worried him more 
than anything eise. Not a word had he heard 
from Ran since he had last seen the boy climbing 
aboard the engine. He had hoped each day 
might bring back Ran or at least some explana- 
tion of the mystery. But the days had passed 
and he was as much in the dark as ever. In 
spite of all the evidence, damning as it was, 
Jerry could not give up hope that sometime, 
somehow, Blair would clear himself. 


262 


JERRY KING 

His reason told him it was a foolish hope 
and most of the night passed as he fought with 
himself for his friend. When he got out in 
Pentico in the early morning, he had not been 
able to settle the thing definitely. 

Seven o’clock found him sitting in Thomas’s 
Office. The old bookkeeper had let him in when 
he came down to work. 

As he waited patiently for the man he wanted 
to see, he feit that the bookkeeper’s eyes were 
on him more often than on his ledger. He 
looked Up once or twice to catch the old fellow 
at it. 

“ What’s the matter with me?” he demanded 
at last. “ Am I a curiosity? ” 

“ Oh, no, dear me, no,” expostulated the man. 

‘‘I just was thinking ” 

“ What? ” snapped the boy. 

How — how ol’ Thomas caught you. It 

was a slick Job ” 

“You know about it?” 

“Oh, yes, my yes. Thomas did something 

like that to me once ” 

Jerry realized that this old man was not a 
friend of Thomas at all. Probably he hated the 


THE LAST PLAY 263 

big lumberman even while he was forced to 
work for him. 

“ How was that? ” he asked. 

“I — I was in the lumber business for myself 
and Thomas jobbed me. Then he gave me this 
place after he got all my money.” 

“ Why have you stayed on? ** 

“ Guess I must have lost my nerve. I — I 
just stayed. Pm telling you this, young man, 
because I don’t want you ever to do any more 
business with Thomas. He’s a devil ! 

“ IVe had all I want of him myself,” was 
Jerry’s answer. “ Thank you all the same.” 

The old fellow went back to his work and 
Jerry tried to puzzle out why he had been chosen 
as a confidant. The easiest explanation was that 
the bookkeeper feit a sort of relationship with 
him — they had been cheated by the same man. 

A few moments later Thomas came in. When 
he caught sight of Jerry King he seemed 
surprised. 

What do you want ? Come to try to make 
that deal with me?” 

“IVe come to make a deal with you,” was 
the boy’s quiet answer. 


264 JERRY KING 

“ Won’t do it. Gave you a chance. You 
didn’t take it up. Too late now. That’s all. 
There’s the door. Good-bye ! ” 

He turned to his desk, barking some Orders 
at the bookkeeper, who scurried out of the room 
like a frightened rabbit. When Thomas looked 
Up again Jerry had not moved. 

“ Not gone yet? Beat it. Beat it quick! As 
quick as you made me beat it up the track the 
other day.” 

‘‘ I’m not going just yet/’ said Jerry, still 
keeping control of himself. 

‘‘ So you’re not going, my young buck? It 
will do no good to stay. I won’t carry a stick, 
not a stick of your timber. Do you hear? Not 
a stick. You can whine all you like. I’m not 
going to help you.” 

“ I don’t want your help. But in spite of that 
you’re going to carry our timber ! ” 

“ Are you bugs or am I? Haven’t I just said 
I’d not carry it?” 

“ I heard you say it, but things you say don’t 
mean anything.” 

The sarcasm was not lost on the big man. 
Hebellowed: ‘Xetout!” 


THE LAST PLAY 265 

Not quite yet. I’ve got something more to 
say. You are going to take out our logs ! ” 

“ I am, am I? And who’ll make me? ” 

“ Common sense, I guess.” 

Clearly the man was puzzled. He had this 
boy absolutcly cornered and yet here he was, 
cool and collected, defying him to his face. 
What was in the air? Could something have 
happened on which he had not counted? Was 
he going to lose out after all the trouble he had 
taken? These things sped through his mind 
before he answered: 

Common sense will make me, eh ? I like 
that. If you and your partner had some com- 
mon sense perhaps you wouldn’t be in such a 
hole. But, young feiler, I like your nerve. Teil 
me what’s on your mind. I need a laugh.” 
With this he settled back in his chair, his 
fingers stuck in his waistcoat pockets. 

“ Common sense will teil you not to throw 
away money, won’t it ? 

“Have you seen me throwing any away?” 

“ Not yet. But you are trying to mighty 
hard.” 

“ You don’t say! And how, Fd like to know.” 


266 JERRY KING 

“ Refusing my deal before you hear it.” 

“ I’ll not be losing much on any deal you can 
make. You can’t make one because IVe got 
you in a fix where I don’t have to fool with you.” 

Jerry determined to make a final bluff. If 
he had to put his plan before Thomas without 
being asked for it, the scheme would lose a lot 
of its power to convince. Thomas must ask. 

It was clear to Jerry that the man was curious 
but he did not want to lose the advantage he 
feit he had gained by being unwilling to deal 
at any terms. If that curiosity was strong 
enough he would ask and the boy put it to the 
test. He got up and started for the door. 

“ Sorry you feel that way,” he said, “ because 
it will cost you money. So long.” 

As Jerry’s hand touched the doorknob he 
heard the word that he had been sure would 
be said. 

Stop ! Wait a bit.” 

His bluff had not been called. 

“What’s the use, if you don’t want to hear 
what I’ve got to say? I’d better be on my way 
back to the job. I’ve got a heap to do.” 

The lumberman jumped at this last remark. 


THE LAST PLAY 


267 


“ A lot to do ! Why you’re done. Finished ! 
Licked to a f razzle ! ’’ He stopped short and 
looked at Jerry, who had managed to make his 
lips curve into a smile. This puzzled Thomas 
and for a moment he lost control of himself. 
This boy had something up his sleeve. He must 
know it! 

“ What’s the grin for ? What do you want 
to say? Hurry up. What is it?” 

I’ll give you seventy-five Cents a thousand 
to bring in that timber ! ” Jerry shot at him. 

Thomas laughed and it was a boisterous 
improvement over his usual ha-ha. “Well, I 
got the laugh I wanted. Good. I like to laugh.” 

“ It’s not so funny as all that,” stoutly 
returned the boy. “I mean it. If you’ll sign 
at that figure right now I’ll go through with 
it — but this is your last chance ! ” 

The earnestness with which Jerry said this 
made its impression. 

“And if I don’t?” 

“ You’ll pay the full five dollars at the mill.” 

“ Is that so? And how are you going to get 
to the mill?” 

“That’s the bet you overlooked! ” cried Jerry 


268 JERRY KING 

exultantly. “ We can get to the mill all right.” 

What he meant was that he had a chance of 
getting to the mill if the freshet water stayed 
with him long enough and everything eise went 
well. But it was no time now for anything but 
absolute confidence. 

Thomas looked at him in amazement, but 
before he could say anything Jerry had gone on 
speaking rapidly and clearly, every word bring- 
ing to the man the conviction that the boy knew 
exactly what he was talking about. 

“ We can get to the mill but it will cost us 
about a dollar a thousand. The reason I’ve 
come to give you a chance is that it’s easier — 
and cheaper for us. Besides, it will be less 
expensive for you. Five dollars is a pretty 
husky price and if it can be cut down a little 
I guess you won’t be sorry. I ” 

The big lumberman could hold himself no 
longer. 

“ But — but how are you going to get the 
logs down here? That’s what I want to know. 
Hire an airship? You’re dreaming, kid, you’re 
dreaming. There ain't any way out of the 
woods except my railroad.” 


THE LAST PLAY 


269 


The hardest part had come for Jerry. He 
must convince Thomas that he could drive his 
logs out or his plan would fail. If the lumber- 
man went up to the camp he would see how 
many chances there were against success and 
in all probability would refuse. 

"‘There’s not much dream about riding our 
timber out on the flood water, is there ? ” he 
challenged. “ We brought it as far as the 
railroad that way ” 

“ I know that. But you can’t get ’em any 
farther.” 

“ Can’t we ? How about that bunch of dams 
you built down the river? How about putting 
in two or three more?” 

‘‘You haven’t got time.” 

Thomas at last realized that he had under- 
estimated the people he had tried to ruin. He 
had thought of the dams down the river but 
they had been so far away from Camp Twenty- 
nine that he had risked no one’s ever seeing 
them. 

Coward at heart, when he saw the game going 
against him, he started planning to cover his 
loss. He could fight only when he held the 


270 JERRY KING 

winning cards. He was beaten and he knew 
it as he waited for Jerry’s answer. 

“ Time? WeVe got two of ’em built already. 
If you don’t agree, I’m going up and Start the 
drive in the morning.” 

Something in Thomas’s manner as he said, 
“Wait a minute — don’t go ahead too fast,” 
told the boy that he had won. But he knew 
delay might be fatal, so he pulled a paper out 
of his pocket, and laid it in front of the 
lumberman. 

“ Can’t wait. My train goes in a few minutes. 
Sign it or ” 

Thomas did not hesitate. Grabbing a pen 
he scrawled his name at the bottom. 

“There! Satisfied?” he snarled. 

“ You’d better read it,” was the answer. ‘‘ It 
calls for cars to be delivered when we’re ready 
for them or you’ll be out a forfeit. WeTe not 
going to be held up.” 

“Anything eise?” 

“Yes, you are to take your freight money 
out of the sum due us for the timber, not before. 
I guess that’s all.” 

Thomas was a pitiable sight. It was bitter 


THE LAST PLAY 


271 


medicine he was taking, especially so because it 
was a boy who was giving it to him. He sat 
hunched up in his chair, all the assertiveness and 
braggadocio gone from him. 

“ Why don’t you go? ” he muttered. You’ve 
got everything you want. Go, leave me alone.” 

“ Before I do I wish you would teil me 
something,” asked Jerry earnestly. “ What did 
you do with Blair?’’ 

But Thomas was never to answer that ques- 
tion, for at that moment the door burst open 
and in walked Ran Blair himself, followed by a 
heavy-set older man! 


CHAPTER XXII 


VICTORY 

“ Jerry ! ” exclaimed the newcomer, rushing 
over with hand outstretched. “ Gee, but Tm 
glad you’re here! Why aren’t you in the 
woods ? ” 

Jerry King hesitated for a second and then, 
his faith in his friend getting the better of his 
distrust, clasped his hand warmly. Somehow 
he knew that Blair was all right, that in due 
time the mystery of his going away would be 
explained. Before he had time to answer the 
question, Ran was talking again. 

“ My father, Jerry,” he said, turning to the 
man. “This is Jerry King, Dad ” 

Before they could shake hands, Thomas had 
risen from his desk and had come forward. 

“ Mr. Blair, I didn’t expect you ” 

“I didn’t want you to, Thomas,” said the 
man icily, turning his back on the big lumber- 
272 


VICTORY 


273 


man. I’m glad to see you, Jerry King. My 
boy has told me of the things you have done 
for him.” 

As the boy stammered some response, he 
realized that the explanation he had wanted 
would soon be made. 

Perhaps you’d like to know that the reason 
I came up here was on account of what my 
boy had to teil me.” 

“ Yes, sir,” said Jerry respectfully, not know- 
ing what eise to say. 

At this point Ran Blair broke in : “ Oh, 

Dad, let me teil Jerry what’s up. You are 
balling him up so’s he can’t understand a 
thing!” 

“ Do it your own way, my son.” 

“ Well, here it is : When I saw Thomas 
going away after trying to bleed you on the 
railroad rate, a plan came to me suddenly. 
There was no time to teil you about it, for I 
had to get the first train for San Francisco and 
the quiekest way I knew was to go into Pentico 
with Thomas on his shoo-fly. I worked you 
for that ride, didn’t I?” he laughed at the 
man, who was looking worried. 


274 JERRY KING 

“ Yes, you — you ” 

Enough of that ! ” barked the elder Blair, 
and Thomas closed his mouth like a spring 
mousetrap. 

“ Well, Jerry, I caught the train I wanted by 
the skin of my teeth and not long after I was 
knocking on the door of my Dad’s office. Sev- 
eral office boys tried to throw me out but they 
hadn’t been in the woods all winter and they 
found it more of a job than they thought. IVe 
told you how Dad had sent me away until I 
made good. It was a shock, wasn’t it, Dad, 
to see me show up in my woods clothes? Didn’t 
exactly look right then as if I’d made very good, 
did it?” 

“ Not at first, but when you told me your 
errand — that you wanted me to help you save 
the people who had believed in you and given 
you a Chance after what you had done to them, 
I saw that you had made good in a far better 
way than if you had come with a pocketful of 
money. All he wanted me to do, Jerry, was to 
buy this logging railroad so you could bring in 
the timber you had cut.” 

Jerry’s eyes shone with pleasure. 


VICTORY 


275 


“ Good boy, Ran ! It was a great thing to do.” 

“ Well, Dad has pots of money and I thought 
he might as well help us out.” 

“ But it wasn’t necessary, Ran, because I 
found a way to make Thomas be reasonable. 
If you’d waited I’d have told you ” 

Ran had to know all about the scheme for 
the drive and how Jerry had used it to bring 
Thomas around. Jerry finished by showing the 
paper he had finally made the lumberman sign. 

“ Let me see it,” Mr. Blair said, reaching for 
the document. 

He hardly glanced at it and then to Jerry’s 
horror, tore it into small pieces! 

Thaf s the ticket ! ” cried Thomas. “ Serve 
’em right. I ” 

Enough, Thomas. When I want to hear 
from you I’ll say so.” 

By this time Jerry had gathered his startled 
wits together. 

“ But, Mr. Blair, why did you do that? Now 
Thomas has got us again ! ” 

‘‘ No, Jerry, he hasn’t,” smiled the man. “ I 
tore your contract up because I don’t want you 
to pay anything for freightage.” 


276 JERRY KING 

“ I’ve figured it will cost in labor and time 
pretty near a dollar a thousand to drive our 
logs even if we have all sorts of luck.” 

“Who said anything about driving them?'’ 

“ Oh, Jerry, don’t you seef ” Ran burst into 
the conversation. “ Dad owns the railroad ! ” 

A great light broke upon the boy. The logs 
were coming in free. 

‘‘You — you bought it then, as Ran wanted 
you to?” he stammered to Mr. Blair. 

But Ran answered the question — 

“ He didn’t have to — he owned it all the 
time.” 

“ Gee whiz ! ” was all that Jerry could manage 
to say. 

“ IBs this way,” explained Mr. Blair. “ I 
happen to own a lot of timber rights up here 
and IVe found it best to operate under the 
names of my managers. The firm of Thomas 
& Olsen is really just Henry P. Blair. When 
Randolph told me the Situation I thought Pd 
better come up and look things over myself. 
Thomas ! ” the capitalist snapped the name out 
sharply. 

“Yes — yes, sir!” The big man who had 


VICTORY 


277 


been so self-assured wHen bullying Jerry a little 
while before now seemed to have lost bis grip. 
He trembled visibly as bis employer^s keen eyes 
looked bim up and down. 

It’s time I knew wbat you bave been up to, 
I tbink. If you bave been capable of using tbe 
autbority I’ve given you to satisfy a personal 
enmity of your own, I tbink you are capable of 
anytbing ! Bring out all your books — TU take 
tbem to tbe botel witb me. I want no cbanges 
made in tbem for my benefit ! ’’ 

‘‘ You are wrong, Mr. — Mr. Blair. I nev — 
never meant any barm. I saw a way to make 
money for you ” 

“ Enougb, sir ! You know tbat I bave never 
wanted any money tbat was not fairly earned. 
My Orders tbat everyone sbould receive square 
and bonorable treatment from my firm, bave 
never been cbanged. I wisb I could know if 

you bave been up to any otber such tricks ” 

He bas, be bas ! ” cried a new voice. ** Lots 
of tbem — I can teil you ! I will teil you ! ” 

It was tbe old bookkeeper, wbo evidently bad 
slipped back into tbe room wben everybody was 
too excited to notice bim. 


278 JERRY KING 

“ Shut up,” screeched Thomas, “ Mr. Blair, 
he’s crazy 

But Thomas was too late. The man he had 
ruined and had then given this job so that he 
could taunt him, was in full swing. Once 
having been able to get his courage up to the 
point of telling his story, he went on and on, 
telling figures and facts that were damning 
enough to send Thomas to jail. 

Before he had gone far, however, Mr. Blair 
stopped him long enough to teil the two boys 
that they had better be off, that this was a 
matter between Thomas and himself. 

“ Come on. Ran,” said Jerry, “ weVe just 
got time to catch the train for camp.” 

** That’s a good idea,” said Mr. Blair. “ Go 
on; ril come up to-morrow when I get things 
straightened out here,” and with this he turned 
back to pay attention to the bookkeeper’s story. 

Jerry and Ran found plenty to talk about on 
the trip up. They told all the details of things 
that had happened while they had been sepa- 
rated and each was immensely satisfied with 
what the other had done. 

Pierre was waiting for them at the Crossing 


VICTORY 279 

when the shoo-fly stopped. He was crazy with 
delight when he heard the news. 

“ Then we don’t have for to use those dams, 
eh? The men, they work like the — the any- 
thing. They finish up number two to-day.” 

“ Good work ! They won’t lose anything by 
it, I know. Go on and teil 'em so/’ 

Me, I think maybeso they like it better if 
you come to the bunkhouse and teil ’em yourself. 
What you think?” 

‘‘ All right, if you want me to,” agreed Jerry. 

The boys turned in that night with the sound 
of the men’s cheers still ringing in their ears. 
There had been high jinks in the bunkhouse 
after the men knew for certain that the long 
fight had been won. 

Early the next morning the loaded cars were 
pulled out and a new string of empty trucks 
was shunted into the siding. 

“Your father is giving us quick action,” 
laughed Jerry. 

‘‘ He’s some hustler when he gets started, all 
right! I’m sure glad I got the hunch to go 
down for him. Even if it hasn’t done you any 
good ” 


280 JERRY KING 

But it has,” Jerry protested. 

“ Anyway, it’s been bully for me. We’ve 
made up and — and it’s going to be the best 
thing in the world for me.” 

“ You bet it is,” was Jerry’s comment. Their 
talk then turned to the work. 

Mr. Blair did not turn up in camp all day. 
But the evening shoo-fly brought back Link 
O’Day several days before Jerry had expected 
him. 

He was worried and anxious as he came into 
the Office where Jerry was doing some figuring 
before going to bed. He had hardly said 
“ hello ” before he was inquiring about the 
work. 

How’s — how’s things, Jerry? Did Thomas 
get nasty?” 

The boy told him the whole story. 

“Well,” said O’Day when he had finished, 
“ weVe won out on this job in spite of me. 
The credit’s all yours, my boy! All I could do 
was make mistakes ! ” He laughe^ happily. 
“ But I’m so tickled about it all that Fm not 
even going to punish myself. It’s great news 
you’ve given me, simply great ! ” 


VICTORY 


281 


Now it was Jerry’s turn to ask questions. 

“How did you find Mr. Holman? I hope 
he’s all right.” 

‘'He had been pretty sick but when I got 
there he was so much better that I could catch 
the next train back. Fm glad I went.” 

“ I’ll bet you are — but it’s good to have you 
back.” 

“ It’s good to be back, especially when there’s 
such good news to be welcomed with. I’ve got 
some news too ” 

“ About me? ” said Jerry eagerly. 

“Yes, good news too, in a way.” 

“Hurry up. Link, don’t keep me guessing. 
What is it? ” 

“ Tim Fallon wasn’t any relation to you, but 
I knew that all the time. Your father was a 
mechanic named West and your mother died 
when you were a tiny baby. At the time this 
happened your family was boarding with the 
Fallons. A little later your father was killed 
by a falling beam. He left a little money, which 
the Fallons immediately used. They were so 
afraid that someone might find out about this 
theft that they moved away, taking you with 


282 JERRY KING 

them. That’s all I could learn, Jerry, but it 
breaks up our idea that we might be brothers, 
doesn’t it? 

“ Yes,” slowly answered Jerry, who had been 
drinking in with all bis ears the things he had 
longed to know for so many years. “ But it 
doesn’t make much difference after all, does it? 
We are pretty good friends. You have been 
fine to me. Seems to me that if people are real 
friends it means about as much as being 
brothers.” 

“ That’s the right idea. I’m glad you are 
taking it that way. I’ve been hoping you would. 
We’re friends, real friends, and we’re going to 
stay that way, through thick and thin. But, 
Jerry, what about your name? Will you change 
it to West?” 

“ I don’t know,” was the doubtful answer. 
“What’s your idea?” 

“ You’ve done some things to make the name 
of King respected,” advised O’Day. “ I don’t 
see why you should change it. But think it 
over; it doesn’t have to be done at once.” 

Before Jerry said good night, he tried to 
teil O’Day how grateful he was for all the 


VICTORY 283 

trouble the man had taken to trace out bis 
parentage. 

You see, Link, until I knew, this thing used 
to worry me a lot. Up here on this job I’ve 
been so busy I haven’t had time to bother about 
it. But now, Link, I feel as if somebody had 
lifted a great load from my shoulders. Some- 
how, the important thing isn’t who my father 
was or whether he is dead or alive — it’s just 
having it settled. Can you get what I’m trying 
to say ? ” 

“ Sure I can. I’ve had it happen to me. But 
beat it for the hay now. We’ve been gabbing 
away until it’s so late that soon it will be early.” 

The next morning another batch of empty log 
trucks rolled onto the siding. Mr. Blair was a 
passenger. The boys spied him and bore him 
off to meet Link O’Day. 

After the greetings were over, Mr. Blair said 
suddenly : 

“ I’m very pleased that you happened to come 
back before I had to leave, Mr. O’Day. I’ve got 
a proposition I’d like to have you consider.” 

Link O’Day showed his surprise by not being 
able to think of anything to say. 


284 JERRY KING 

Yes/’ continued the capitalist, “ I would like 
very much indeed if you would take the position 
Thomas has left vacant in my Organization.” 

“What happened to Thomas, Dad?” asked 
Blair. 

“ After what I learned in his office the other 
day, I think he was glad to get out of town 
without being arrested. What delayed me was 
the fact that Olsen did not come to town until 
yesterday. You’ll find him a good fellow to 
work with, Mr. O’Day, if you should accept my 
offer.” 

O’Day seemed to hesitate. Then he said, I 
certainly appreciate what you are offering me, 
Mr. Blair, but I can’t consider anything which 
does not take Jerry into the plan, thank you just 
the same.” 

“ Don’t you do anything foolish on my 
account,” cried the boy. “ Do what Mr. Blair 
wants you to. TU be all right.” 

O’Day smiled at the boy but shook his 
head. No, Jerry, we’ll have to plug along 
together ” 

“ What’s all this anyway? ” barked Mr. Blair. 
^‘Who said anything about Mr. O’Day and 


VICTORY 


285 


Jerry being sepaiftted? I did not, Fm sure. 
Both these young limbs — your boy and mine — 
will be your assistants. Does that make any 
difference? ” 

“ You bet it does!” cried O’Day. ‘‘TU go 
you, if you want me to, but if the truth is told, 
Jerry is a better woodsman than I am.” 

“You were able to make the lad loyal to 
you and work his head off and all the gang’s 
heads off to make a success, weren’t you? Well, 
that’s the sort of man I need. That’s all there 
is to it. We’ll consider the matter closed.” 

Jerry had been thinking while this conversa- 
tion had been taking place. Now he ventured 
a question. 

“ But Mr. Blair, why are you doing all this 
for US? ” 

“Why? Isn’t it pretty plain? Didn’t you 
give my boy a chance when he didn’t deserve 
one? And then gave him another one when he 
failed you the first time ” 

“Jerry did,” Link O’Day put in. “I had 
nothing to do with it.” 

“Well, one of you did all those things. It 
was something I couldn’t seem to do — make a 


286 JERRY KING 

man out of my son. I could make money but 
that only seemed to hurt Randolph, not help him. 
Now, I’m proud of him and I’m convinced that 
ril remain proud of him if he doesn’t get away 
from you two. That’s why I want to make it 
worth your while to stay with me.” 

“That suits me!” cried Ran. “ Here’s to 
the new firm ! But what’s it going to be called, 
Dad?” 

“ O’Day & Olsen. But the silent partners are 
Blair and King. And, O’Day, unless I am very 
much mistaken, the youngsters are going to give 
you a run for your money! Well, I see they 
are getting ready to pull out. I’ll have to go; 
IVe been away from San Francisco too long as 
it is. As soon as the logs are all at the mill, 
come down and visit us, Randolph. Your 
mother wants to see you. Bring Jerry with you 
— good-bye.” 

A few days later all the timber had been 
scaled at the mill. As Jerry had prophesied, 
the total was nearer four million and a half than 
four. There was a fine net profit left for O’Day 
and Jerry even after the generous bonus to the 
men had been paid. 


VICTORY 


287 


Pierre Lavin had refused to be discharged 
with the rest of the gang. O’Day found him a 
job at the mill that would keep him busy until 
Winter came again and the work in the woods 
would commence. 

Ran Blair had gone to visit his people but 
Jerry had not accompanied him, as he and Link 
had planned to cruise a big tract of timber that 
would need cutting before long. 

‘‘Glad you came along with me?” asked 
O’Day one night before they started on their 
trip. “ You don’t regret giving up the Reclama- 
tion Service? ” 

“ No, Link,” said Jerry King slowly. “ Not 
for a minute. This is the life I love. The 
woods, the snow in winter, the fights and strug- 
gles — this is my job and I’m happy.” 


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